"Opportunity has only one hair on its head - Grab it!"
Added 1/30/2006
Top-notch Preston Sturges comedy about patriotism and small-town politics. Eddie Bracken plays the son of a WW I marine hero who has joined up for WW II with high hopes for glory, only to be discharged for hay fever. Embarrassed to go home to his mother and sweetheart (Ella Rains), he meets six marines in a bar one night (led by William Demerest) and before he knows what hit him, he's on his way home a decorated war hero (thanks to the snow job concocted by Demerest). The town goes ga-ga and ends up electing him mayor. He finally straightens things out at the end, but in the meantime we are treated to some of the best Sturges exploding humor on screen. The entire Sturges stock company is on hand, and especially good are Raymond Walburn as the windbag mayor Bracken defeats, Freddie Steele as a mother-loving marine, and, of course, Demerest. Brilliant fare, this is Sturges in peak form.
IT'S A CRYING SHAME THERE'S NO DVD OF THIS YET. COME ON!!
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"What are you nuts or something!?" "Maybe."
Added 1/19/2005
Woodrow comes from a small close-knit town in California. His grandfather owned the land the town was built on and his father was a brave Marine who die for his country. So when Woodrow is kicked out of the Marines after one month for chronic hay fever he's too embarrassed to go home. He works for a year at the shipyards and mails letters home via outgoing soldiers.
One fateful evening some Marines on leave hear his tale and concoct a fake war hero story and escort him home thinking that only his poor worried mother will hear their lies. They even gather up some medals for him. But when they arrive on the train Woodrow's greeted by a cheering crowd and five marching bands all playing different songs at one time. The mayor gives Woodrow the key to the city, the town folk pay off his mother's mortgage, they nominate Woodrow for the upcoming race for mayor, a statue is being erected and they even write a song about him. Woodrow tries over and over to tell everybody the truth, but each time he does the lie only gets bigger and bigger.
Made the same year as Sturges' screwball classic THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK this movie has a number of the same actors (I lost count at 10) and is almost as funny, but for some reason it's kinda slipped through the cracks. Would make a great double feature with THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK.
Why is there not a Preston Sturges DVD box set?
D: Preston Sturges (THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, THE LADY EVE)
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith - Eddie Bracken (THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, HOME ALONE 2)
Libby - Ella Raines (THE SENATOR WAS INDISCREET, BRUTE FORCE)
Sgt. Heppelfinger - William Demarest (THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK. IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD)
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Entertaining little comedy that embraces the values of
Added 4/15/2004
WWII America. I see this as probably the second movie of a double feature at the local Bijou, (who remembers those days?).
Eddie Bracken plays the little guy with a big name (Woodrow LaFayette Pershing Trusmith) & a bigger legacy, that of his father who died a Marine hero. in WWI. Of course he joins the Marines but promptly washes out with severe hayfever. Too embarassed to return home he dumps his girlfriend & pretends to be overseas. He's drinking at a bar & runs into a group of real Marines just back from Guadalcanal. Despite his protests, they accompany him back home. He is mistakenly greeted as a hero home from war. Bedlam & confusion ensue as befits the screwball comedies of the day. It all has a happy ending, (required in those days). This movies satirizes the cult of celebrity & the effects of mob mentality. Woody, his girlfriend Libby played by Ella Rainer & the townsfolks are all likeable. To add a bit of patriotic flavor you have those loveable lugs of the United States Marine Corps., with anthem & everything. They are led by their gruff but loveable Sgt. played by William Demarest. Good movie for the home front during the last "good" war & amusing still today.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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The Best of Sturges
Added 3/11/2003
I watched Sullivan's Travels and didn't understand what the big deal over Sturges was about. THIS film, however, is great! The dialogue is snappy and, most importantly, services a strong PLOT. With Travels it was the other way around.Put this movie on DVD!!
2 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Perhaps Sturges most neglected masterpiece
Added 12/28/2002
Between 1940 and 1944, Preston Sturges was on a role. He wrote and directed seven absolutely stellar comedies before he lost the magical touch that had made his one of the great comedy screenwriters of the 1930s and directors of the early 1940s. This was the last of that stellar run.The premise is simple. Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, magnificently portrayed by Eddie Bracken, is discharged from the marines because of hay fever, but is too ashamed to return home. Instead, he fakes a military career, having people mail home letters from abroad to make his friends and family and girlfriend all believe he is in combat. When a group of marines hear about his situation, they compassionately decide to return him to his hometown as a war hero. The bulk of the film deals with the misunderstandings that arise from this pretence. HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO has all the marks of Sturges's best work: lightening paced dialog, a huge cast of talented character actors (most familiar from other Sturges films), and multiple layers of action in scene after scene. The ensemble cast truly excels in this film. No one, however, stands out more than William Demarest, who did almost all his greatest work in Sturges films. For some reason, this film does not seem to be shown as often as most of Sturges best films, and even some lesser films get shown more frequently. But this is absolutely first rate Sturges, and anyone enjoying THE LADY EVE or SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS or THE PALM BEACH STORY will find just as much to love in this one.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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A Yuk, A Couple of Yukes -- But That's About It.
Added 10/20/2009
You can tell that a great deal of intelligence went into the making of this film.
There were a number of scenes that were very long takes indeed, some over five minutes each. And that gave the movie a fresh, stage-like feel to it.
But, hoping this movie would live up to the hype it's gotten over the years by critics and fans alike, I can't say it was all that great, all that funny.
Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken were, for me, somewhat *tedious* in their performances. And the whole premise of the movie struck me as a "one-trick pony." Ok, so she's pregnant. I suppose this would have held the interest of a 1944 audience in quite a different way than a 21st century audience.
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One of the craziest and zaniest.
Added 5/29/2009
This has got to be one of the funniest, hilarious, zaniest, outrageous movies of its time. Preston Struges, was one of the top writers then directors for Paramount Studios when he made this film. He was the type of man to have a crazy scene in there some kind of way. Another thing about him is that he sprinkled the word sex in his movies pretty liberally. Supposedly, it was made in 1941,1942, delayed a while, some say due to the nature of the film, and hmm, I could see why if that be the case. Some say for other reasons; Either way, with all the tampering, changes, what have you, you still come up with this. Now you have this young girl Trudy Knockenhocker played with relish by Betty Hutton, who is the daughter of the local policeman William Demarest(who gave a sterling performance); It's World War 2, the boys are leaving town, and Trudy wants to go to the party the town is holding for the boys leaving for war. ok, but the father, doesn't want her to go; So she gets Norval Jones, her 4F dependable buddy, who also loves the proverbial ground she walks on(played by Eddie Bracken)to say they were going to the movies. well, she ditches him there and goes to the ball; Now first off the bat, when Trudy leaves supposedly going to the movies in a ball gown and William Demarest doesn't get the hint, something ain't right. Let me not neglect to add Diana Lynn who plays her little but wise knowing sister; So, Norval gets stuck at the movies, Trudy has the time of her life at the ball; And boy what a time.So much so, she has a memory lapse due to her drinking too much champagne, and is late picking Norval up that has folks thinking he took advantage of her; Oh if they only knew...Anyhow, Trudy ends up noticing this ring on her finger but she vaguely remembers the details. Now folks, even in this day and time, we look at women kind of funny for that to an extent, but in those days, THAT WAS A NO NO! and to show it in the movies, BIG NO NO!! To this day, I still wonder how The Hays Office let this movie come off the lot to theaters. But moving on, the night is forgotten but then old Trudy ends up pregnant (OH HORROR!) and now she's got a dillemma; She can't remember the name of the man, only some funny name and that they all use fake names to marry. So lil sister cooks up a scheme to let Norval take the fall and marry her. Now mind you, the fella only loved her from Day One, so for him it was a big opportunity, but for her it was a way out of a funky situation. So, she comes up with the idea of him dressing up in a uniform (WW1)and go somewhere to get married with fake names, but when they kissed and stated their real names afterwards, the license folks got wise and bring in the law all the way to the state government gets involved in this one girl's business.Talk about a little problem snowballing.. I could go on,and boy does it goes on until the climatic end, which I pray will have you cracking your sides; Worth the watch and time.
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excellantly funny
Added 4/3/2009
An excellent movie. B&W but keeps one laughing from start to finish. Really great. Seen it first on TCM and had to oder a copy foir my collection. M. Langan
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