Tell It to the Marines, 1926

Tell It to the Marines is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by George W. Hill and starring Lon Chaney, William Haines, and Eleanor Boardman. The film follows a Marine recruit and the sergeant who trains him. It was the biggest box office success of Chaney’s career and the second biggest moneymaker of 1926/1927.

The studio was also allowed to shoot on Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego which made Tell It to the Marines the first motion picture made with the full cooperation of the U.S. Marine Corps. Battleship USS California (later involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941) was used for the scenes at sea and the final sequence of the film, where the Marines rescue the hostages, was filmed at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California, the location for such films as Fort Apache and The Good Earth.