Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944)

It's only when the movie is over you 'll realize how deeply moving this very simple story is.A propaganda movie,it certainly is ,but a good propaganda movie which speaks to the heart .In those WW2 trouble times , a poor family is preparing a Sunday dinner for a guest : a soldier on furlough who will be back to the front after these fleeting moments of happiness.It's just a joy to see this family give all they have (and it is not much) to treat their guest like a member of their family ,with a little help from their neighbor.Ann Baxter and John Hodiak are a good romantic couple and their meeting when she's dancing alone is a good moment .Like this? try this...."Babettes Gaestebud" (Babette's feast),Gabriel Axel,1987

People are letting themselves get carried away. Ann Baxter is lovely, the music is lovely, Connie Marshall is a real sweetheart (reminds me a little of Peggy Ann Garner), Anne Revere as usual steals the show, and there are a few touching scenes, particularly the flyovers and in the resort ruins. Unfortunately, Lloyd Bacon's direction is execrable. This was a cheap movie, and Bacon makes it show. The sets are obviously sound stage or back lot, which a couple of location shots don't compensate for at all. And the process shots are terribly phony.But what's worse is the cloying sentimentality. Bacon has everyone calling Charles Winninger's cartoonish grandfather "Grandfeathers" every other line, just to remind us how cute the movie is. Bobby Driscoll stands on his head while blowing a whistle to show us how cute he is. The hen's noises are so obviously human (was it Mel Blanc?) it's embarrassing, as are the piles of rubber prop chickens.Next-to-top-billed John Hodiak doesn't make his appearance until near the end, which is a rip-off, given that he gets less screen time than the chicken. The movie could have spent its time developing the Baxter and Hodiak characters, using the Florida shanty, the kids the gramps and other colorful characters as a backdrop, but Bacon front-loads the movie with bathos and the antics of the side characters, while trying to sell the notion of two people falling in love over Sunday dinner in a couple of brief scenes. (Yeah, yeah, they really were an item, but that's certainly not a given in the story. Bacon has The Soldier looking like he's smitten before he's even met the lady! Maybe it was the pheromones.) I like war morale movies, especially those which capture the era. I even like sentiment. But Lloyd Bacon's clumsy, manipulative and saccharine directing wastes a fine cast and a potentially moving story.

I saw this in original release as a teenager. Ann Baxter and John Hodiak were later married, I think they fell in love while making this movie. This flick is so heartwarming, it has everything - humor, romance, family values, and yes...dialogue!The last scene when Hodiak goes back to camp and on to war is so good. As he gets on the bus, he's holding a picture of himself taken with those that took him in for the holiday. Answering another soldier's question, he says THIS IS MY FAMILY! You know he's going to come back after the war and marry Baxter's character.See it if you can. We've got to get this on DVD or VHS.

This should be out on Criterion DVD, and sadly, it has never even been released on ANY format. Unless you are lucky enough to catch it on AMC, you won't see it. Which is sad. The only thing I can add to what has already been said here in other comments and in the summary is that it is easily one of the 100 best movies of all time, and a MUST if you are a fan of this era!!!!!!