Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

In a way, Preston Sturges script is the reverse of The Best Years of Our Lives, only this might just be the film that laid the groundwork for that classic. While this is done as a comedy all the way, it's script touches the soul of wartime America. Everyone was so committed to the war effort, this one goes over board in showing how the home front honors hero's, even though Woodrow(Eddie Bracken) is no hero. This film is a lot of the casts finest hours on film. Bracken is brilliant in a role which he is not real comfortable in, but does play it so well.Ella Raines, though in the background for a fair portion of this one, really shines as Libby, Woodrows childhood love. To me, William Demarest (Sgt. Heffelfinger) is at his absolute best in this movie and nearly steals the show. The Sgt. is the key character in this movie.It is the Sgt. that arranges to get Woodrow, reluctantly, to go home after being rousted out of the Marines on a minor problem ( chronic hay fever) that is why he is not going home. Woodrow is no hero, and working in a factory and drinking at a bar, he buys 6 real Marines (including Sgt.) a round of beer as the real ones have no money. In return, they come up to the bar to thank him, and learn his story. This is the perfect hook for the story to hang on. The comedies have a strong story, and this one is among the best.With all the unaccredited players and folks from silent films in this, you'd think there would be too much physical slapstick. This Sturges script is too good for that. In fact, after being a farce for quite a while when Woodrow gets back home, this movie suddenly becomes an almost dramatic film. This is a credit to Sturges directing his own script as his direction is the only man who could take an out of control farce and put it back on track.Comedy and Drama have rarely been mixed better than this film. As the World War 2 generation is fast departing us now, this movie should be a double feature film with The Best Years Of Our Lives. It would be a long double bill, but the contrast between these 2 differently brilliant films would give everybody an idea of the greatest generation. I am so glad I have finally seen this gem.

Preston Sturges directed this comedy/satire that stars Eddie Bracken as Woodrow Lafeyete Pershing Truesmith, a discharged soldier being sent home because of a persistent hay fever condition. Despondent that he never saw action, a group of Marines take pity on him and decide that he should fabricate his military exploits when he returns home to see his mother, so give him medals and concoct a war record for him. This joke backfires when, upon his return home, his mother has gone overboard by organizing a parade in his honor, where he is treated as a war hero, with songs and a statue dedicated to him, and he is urged to run for mayor! How can he tell everyone the truth now? Though an amusing idea, with some funny bits, this film is way too far-fetched and contrived to be believed, and Eddie Bracken wears out his welcome early on with his obnoxious and dense character. Much ado about very little.

This widely hailed classic, generally regarded as Preston Sturges' best (and thought to have lost the 1944 Oscar for best Screenplay mainly because writer/director Sturges had to compete against himself and his own Miracle At Morgan's Creek), is one of those rare films that actually get better with repeat viewings.We first meet Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) sitting alone and depressed at the end of a nightclub bar near the defense plant where he has been patriotically working since being discharged from the Marines for "chronic hay fever" shortly after enlisting to be like his Marine father (who won a Congressional Medal of Honor, falling at WWI's battle of Bella Wood on the day Woody was born). We see him, in what appears to be a regular practice, buying drinks and food for a group of six Marines, led by William Demarest in the role of his long life.The grateful Marines get Woody's story out of him - that he could not face going home following what he viewed as his "disgrace," and wrote his mother (letters mailed by soldiers shipped abroad) that he WAS serving over seas, and released his girlfriend who he was sure wouldn't want someone who couldn't serve. Freddy Steele's "Bugsy," raised in an orphanage, is so outraged that Woody would cut himself off from the Mother he didn't have, that he calls Woody's Mother, telling her that her son's been discharged following recovery from wounds and is coming home - starting the "little lie" that rapidly snowballs in comic complications.All six Marines (after first setting up the core situation by forcing their own uniforms and medals on Woody on the train home to pull off the charade for his mother) are such solid, grounding presences throughout the film packed with Sturges' regular team of character players from Ray Walburn as the opportunistic more than corrupt small town mayor to Franklyn Pangborn as the general factotum, that it is almost criminal that only a couple of them are credited by name. The film's chief leap of faith is that any Marine would violate regulations as to the wearing of uniforms and medals not earned - but Sturges the screenwriter bridges this gap neatly between Woody passionately struggling NOT to be caught up in the charade and the soldiers themselves becoming trapped in it.In the end, in a film not remembered for its subtlety, Sturges' actual subtlety nearly works against him by neither making his justifications as up front and memorable nor his "bad guys" as deeply villainous as, say, a Frank Capra might have, but the warmth and essential nobility of the true "hero" shine through and make this something of value far beyond the time it was made for.In 1961, the tale came a-cropper in a noble attempt to turn it into a Broadway musical with a book by Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), a score by Moose (Peter Pan) Charlap & Norman Gimbel and direction and choreography by the great Bob Fosse (who was fired on the road in a dispute over his choreography!). The timing was off more than the content - half a decade later, once the Vietnam conflict had heated up and was still perceived as a noble effort (we were never told at the time that the war was to prop up a government which refused to participate in UN supervised popular elections when the French withdrew from their former colony because the nationalist general who led the drive for freedom - their George Washington - was sure to win), things might have been different. The demo recordings which survive are nice enough - but thanks to TCM and home video, the real deal is available and one of the best.This is not a pro or anti-war film, it is simply a film set in wartime (and excellently capturing the home front of that time) which quite beautifully looks at the nature of quiet heroism. If you've never seen it, you should - if you have, it's worth another look. It's probably even better than you remember.

Woodrow is alone in a bar with only his miserable self for company. When he sees some Marines enter the bar with no money he buys them a couple of rounds of drinks. He is motivated to do so, he tells them, because he only lasted a month in the Marines before being discharged due to hayfever; although he cannot go home because he has told his mother that he is overseas and fighting in the war. The marines decide to help him out by returning home with him, pretending that Woodrow has returned home due to injury, thus protecting his mother's feelings. However their plan runs away from them when the whole town is out to greet them and lies are piled on top of lies.It was the five stars allotted it in the Radio Times that drew my eye to this film and the general consensus of opinion among viewers seems to back up that this is a brilliant classic. I would love to agree and maintain the status quo because it would mean fewer abusive private messages about me "sucking", however for my money this film was not brilliant, although it was certainly good. The plot sees Woodrow's lie spiralling out of control as various groups in the town act in ways he did not predict, whether it be him becoming the pride of the town or the politicians who see capital in his achievements and so on. Ultimately the film takes us to a heart-warming conclusion of values and community in the Capra sense of things. In doing this it provides a roundly amusing story that leads to a happy ending and at this level I enjoyed it and found it flowed very easily.The problem I had with it was how it is held up as a great piece of satire and I really don't think it is. This is not a failing in my perception because the film does have this edge where it holds up for ridicule the attitudes of the different groups to a war hero. This aspect is so-so I'm afraid because it is not set up to be sharp, judgemental or anything other than gentle digging. Maybe this was all the subject could stand up to in the way of criticism at the time but looking back it is as fierce as a kitten toying with wool.The delivery now appears to tend more towards the comic content, which is enough to carry the film if not enough to justify the "classic" label. Sturges has a good feel for the comedy in the characters and dialogue and he does really well in bringing this out. The cast had me waiting for a second because they seemed quite basic in their turns, quickly though I had been won over by the tight focus of their performances on the comedy within their characters and they did well for what was required. Bracken in particular plays Woodrow right for the comedy and it is not really his fault that he doesn't have that much chemistry with Raines. She is likewise OK apart from this failing. Walburn, Demarest, Conlin and others all play their parts well within the story and certainly there are no clunkers in there.I would like to praise Hail the Conquering Hero as many others have done if for no other reason than avoiding those that think swearing is the same as discussion but I cannot. For what it does well it is an amusing and quite jolly little film with a morally upbeat ending but the satire is soft to the point of being toothless. Enjoyable but not as good as its reputation would suggest.