Soldier’s plaything, a .avi

"A Soldier's Plaything" is living -- and talking -- proof that not every movie directed by Michael Curtiz was another "Casablanca" or "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Even by 1930s standards, it's a pot-boiler that appears -- from a barrage of title cards -- to have been planned as a silent, then revamped after "The Jazz Singer" opened. Ben Lyon gives a cardboard performance as a gambler who joins the army to escape a murder rap, Harry Langdon does better as his klutzy stooge, Noah Beery is the apoplectic officer who keeps putting them in the stockade. There are a few sight gags that may have been mildly amusing in 1930 and the sound is surprisingly sharp for the era. Otherwise, though, it's a museum piece. Ben Lyon, Harry Langdon, Lotti Loder