Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

SimonJack This Preston Sturges film is a wartime comedy with more to it than appears on the surface. It's a good story with a plot that is well developed. The situation comedy is plain for all to see. Eddie Bracken's Woodrow Truesmith returns home after being away for a year, supposedly for wartime service overseas. William Demarest, as Sgt. Heppelfinger, heads a group of Marines who are back in the States from Guadalcanal, and who concoct a ruse to make Woodrow a hero back home. There are more details but this sets the stage for much of the story. Yet, underlying this is a message about nonmilitary service in wartime. It's no disgrace that Woodrow was medically discharged from the Marines after one month of training. And, people who fill civilian jobs back home also are important to the war effort. None of this is overtly obvious, so that it doesn't become a preachy film. But that nice, subtle message is there. Bracken does a good job in his role, but I think Demarest was especially good as the sergeant. The rest of the actors were all quite good. The film has a sizable cast with several notable character actors of the day. Franklin Pangborn plays the reception committee chairman in a frenzied, disorganized and pompous way that was a trademark of many of his roles. Raymond Walburn as Mayor Noble had some of the best lines in the movie – a good number of lines. He played his role superbly well and clearly provided must of the humor in the film. He had many snappy, very funny quips and lines. Which lead me to think that the film also was something of a spoof of politics. Even the stereotyping of Marines as not well educated gets a pass. This bunch is seen as caring and considerate men, even with their toughness. In the end, Woodrow swallows his pride and tells the town folk the truth. Honesty once again proves to be the best policy.

Robert J. Maxwell It is the middle of World War II and American towns are gripped by patriotic fervor. In Preston Sturgis's "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," which appeared the same year as this, Betty Hutton was what was called "a Victory girl" who gave a departing serviceman a good-bye present that left unanticipated consequences. In Sturgis's "Hail the Conquering Hero," small-town nobody Eddie Bracken is quickly discharged from the U. S. Marine Corps because he has hay fever. Ashamed to go home, he gets a job in the city and writes letter to his Mom bragging about the battles he's been in. After all, Mom has already lost family members in combat and doesn't need a disappointment.Finally he decides to visit home. He buys a uniform and campaign ribbons to make his epistolary lies more believable. But on the train he runs into half a dozen tough Marines who have been on Guadalcanal. They're led by William Demarest. Taking pity of Bracken's mother, they get him in shape and escort him to his house.He's unexpectedly welcomed as a brave warrior. Bands play, crowds cheer, his beautiful girl friend (Ella Raines) begins to glow with a renewed admiration. His mother sobs with relief and pride. The townsmen plan to put up a statue. A parade marches down the street.Bracken is overwhelmed, having thought he'd slip in and out, but his Marine buddies prop him up and tell Homeric tales of his bravery. The town pays off his mother's mortgage and supports him for Mayor against a hilarious and corrupt blow hard. Some of the funniest moments involve Al Bridge trying to make a public statement or dictate a letter and being constantly interrupted.Frank Capra made a number of movies in a similar vein -- the gullibility of the public when faced with a phony or with big-time crookedness -- but there was always a sentimental climax in which honesty was finally rewarded. Honesty is rewarded here, too, but in a rough-house, grab-ass, ironic way. Nobody will weep when Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith makes his confession.Eddie Bracken is good at this sort of thing -- stuttering, shaking with fear, being shoved around by a horde of admirers, tearing his hair out with shame. Ella Raines is so conventionally beautiful that she's reason enough to stay home. The Marines are up to snuff. In fact, one of the more moving moments is when Bracken has developed a scheme to wiggle out of town and desert his adoring mother. One of the men loses his temper, Bracken hysterically socks him, and the Marine wipes his mouth and says contemptuously, "Go hurt a girl. That's all you're good for." The fact that the Marine can't act makes the scene more touching.The director came and went through Hollywood like a rocket. His career last for some years but he never equaled his output over a brief period in the early forties. Too bad. This is pretty good.

blanche-2 Preston Sturges wrote and directed the 1944 film "Hail the Conquering Hero," which stars Eddie Bracken, William Demarest, Ella Raines and Franklin Pangborn. Bracken is Woodrow Truesmith, whose father was a famous war hero. Woodrow, however, is 4F because of hay fever. Discharged and depressed, he sits in a bar delaying going home. He confesses the truth to some marines he meets in a bar, and they decide to accompany him home to back up the story he told his mother - that he's in a hospital overseas due to war injuries. When he arrives home, he has a hero's welcome. Later there's a statue and a song. Then the town wants him to be mayor.Sturges' gift was coming up with wacky plots, while others of the era could create wacky situations within a plot. This one is pretty outrageous. As Woodrow feels more and more guilty, the public adulation becomes bigger and bigger. It's a strong message about people believing what they want to believe and their need for a hero.Bracken plays his role very seriously and lets the situation and the lines get the laughs. His character looks and feels trapped. Ella Raines plays his ex-fiancée, and she's very beautiful - a cross between Jeanne Crain and Gene Tierney, she gives a very sweet and sincere performance. She was a very underrated actress and beauty who for some reason never reached the top tier of stardom; today she is remembered for some wonderful film noirs in which she appeared. William Demarest is very funny as the marine helping to keep the story alive - at any cost.I enjoyed "The Lady Eve," "The Palm Beach Story," and "Sullivan's Travels" better, mainly because of their casts, but for Sturges fans, this is a must see.

theowinthrop In a wonderful series of films between 1940 and 1948 Preston Sturgis rewrote the idea of film satire in Hollywood, taking apart political and business sacred cows, and showing a remarkably realistic view of sex in America despite the continued use of the so-called Hays Office and the moral code.HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO is one of the best of these films. It deals with the issue of heroism and it's political value in wartime. Woodrow Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) is a 4-F who has been working in California in a plant because he could not get drafted. But his family and neighbors expect him to be in the army. His father was a war hero in World War I (he was named Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith after President Woodrow Wilson, General John Pershing, and the Marquis of Lafayette - supposedly Pershing's staff Major, Charles Stanton, made the statement "Lafayette we are here" when our troops arrived to help the French in 1918 - so that Woodrow was born about 1918). Bracken has lied in letters to his mother that he is a marine and a hero. He tells this to a small group of Marines, led by William Demerest (and including one named Bugsie, played by former boxer Freddie Steele) who decide to accompany him back to his home on their furlough. They go with him, and back up his lies, so that Bracken finds himself the town's leading hero - and a potential piece of political timber.The town is run by two men, Al Briggs (the quiet but intelligent town boss) and Raymond Walburn, the richest man in town who is the mayor as well: Everett Noble. Walburn is always blustering, but he basically knows what's what. However it is Briggs who asks the right questions. When the reform party nominates Woodrow for Mayor, Briggs asks, "I wonder if he really is a hero?" And he starts making inquiries.They have an unwitting ally: Woodrow himself. He finds the expansion of his lies too much pressure on him, and he questions it's value. But he can't buck his mother, his girlfriend (Ella Raines), nor Demerest, Steele, and the other Marines. They've learned that Woodrow is the only hope for the town's future because it's currently somewhat shoddy and corrupt in it's goals and actions. They can't let Woodrow confess.What makes a hero? In HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, set in the middle of WORLD WAR II, it turns out that heroism is not only found on a military front or battlefield, but can be found on the home front as well. It can take many forms, and sometimes it is at great personal humiliation and hurt. Bracken never had a better role (except for his other starring role for Sturgis in THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK), and demonstrate the growth of his moral stature quite well. Demerest, Walburn, Raines, Briggs all do well (Demerest in an oddly different role - he's a soldier, not a wise guy), and Freddy Steele's "Bugsie" is a wonderful portrait of a slightly mentally ill soldier with a mother fixation. Steele had a a career in movies in the 1940s, mostly in bit roles. This was his best performance.