The Leatherneck (1929 Color Silent Drama film) (Alan Hale, William Boyd)

Directed by Howard Higgin. At the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, Elliott J. Clawson was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Prints of the film exist in the archives of the Library of Congress and at George Eastman House.

Plot
In the 1920s three U.S. Marines who have deserted return to their base in Tientsin, China; one is dead, one is insane, and one is court martialed. On the witness stand he relates their story from the end of World War I. Following the Armistice with Germany Pvt Calhoun temporarily frees a German prisoner of war named Schmidt to go drinking with him. In the bar another Marine, Pvt Hanlon, refuses to drink with a German; their brawl escalates into a fight with the military police where the three become friends. The German eventually migrates to the United States where he enlists in the Marines.

The three Marines reunite in Vladivostok during the Siberian Intervention. The three meet a family of White Russians who have been impoverished by the Russian Revolution and whose only source of wealth is a potash mine the family owns in Manchuria. The three Marines also meet an American mercenary named Captain Heckla who attempts to recruit the Marines in a scheme to trick the Russian father out of his mine and share the wealth. The Marines beat Heckla up, with Tex marrying the White Russian's daughter Tanya.

Cast
William Boyd as Pvt William "Tex" Calhoun
Alan Hale as Pvt Otto "Fuzzy" Schmidt
Robert Armstrong as Pvt Joseph "Buddy" Hanlon
Fred Kohler as Captain Heckla
Diane Ellis as Tanya
Jimmy Aldine as Tanya's brother (as James Aldine)
Paul Weigel as Petrovitch
Jules Cowles as Cook
Wade Boteler as Gunnery Sergeant
Jack Richardson as Captain Brand
Joseph W. Girard as the Colonel