The Gay Retreat on AllMovie

As the comic relief in What Price Glory?, Sammy Cohen and Ted McNamara were hits. Unfortunately, when the Fox studios tried to feature them on their own, they weren't anywhere near as successful. Wealthy Dick Wright (Gene Cameron) wants to fight in WWI, but he's turned down by both the army and navy because he is a sleepwalker. He decides to join an ambulance unit, and his chauffeur and valet (Cohen and McNamara) go along to protect him. The three of them, however, wind up on a regular troop train and land in France as privates. They get involved in a lot of wild adventures, and the chauffeur and valet happen upon an enemy detachment. By disguising themselves in German uniforms, which fit almost as poorly as their army uniforms did, they capture the enemy soldiers. As a result, they return home as heroes. Cohen and McNamara were teamed a couple more times, including in director Henry Lehrman's When Sailors Go Wrong, but McNamara died in 1928, ending a partnership that was never very successful to begin with.