Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

mark.waltz There's something sentimental about the years of World War II, a war where world peace was at stake and 90 percent of the world gathered together to fight against three tyrants who wanted to take over and destroy civilization altogether. Motion picture footage, popular music and still photography document the romantic side of this horrible war which killed possibly billions of innocent young men and civilians on both sides. It's probably the one war in history that young men went in eager, even if reluctantly, to wipe out fascism and restore order to a world gone wild.In 1944 alone, movie goers got an abundance of touching stories of how war affects the home, from the lengthy but outstanding "Since You Went Away", the tear-jerker romance "I'll Be Seeing You" and the tragic "The Sullivans", as well as all-star musicals like "Hollywood Canteen" and "Four Jills in a Jeep" which showed how celebrities were getting involved to "entertain the boys both over there and at home". The majority of the world played cheerleader to the millions of soldiers fighting for home, the girl (or boy) they loved, giving them encouragement that they would have something to return to when the war was finally over."Sunday Dinner For a Soldier" documents how a struggling poor family on the coast of Florida went out of their way to make an effort to participate in the tradition of inviting visiting military personnel over for dinner to help remind them of what remained back at home while they were on active duty. Anne Baxter is the struggling older sister of four children, and living with them is their irascible grandfather (a wonderful Charles Winninger) who is trying to avoid unwanted attentions by the much married town matriarch (Anne Revere). After Revere maliciously rips up Winninger's request for soldiers to attend Sunday dinner as their guests, she has second thoughts when she comes across two of the children selling berries in an effort to raise money for the dinner.Chill Wills is delightful as the local bus driver who escorts visiting soldiers all around the town and provides kindly words of wisdom to his riders. Jane Darwell plays the head of the committee arranging these dinners and is bombarded with late night phone calls by Revere inquiring if she's found at least one soldier to attend. By the time Sunday shows up, it appears that nobody will appear, leaving Baxter, Winninger and the three spunky children all depressed. But miracles happen, and in this case, it's in the form of handsome John Hodiak who happens along the beach near the houseboat where the family resides.There's a ton of luscious subplots galore, including one corny but adorable storyline involving the kid's pet hen whom Winninger hates and presumably plucks and beheads in preparation for that Sunday dinner with the unknown soldier. Baxter plays a hard character on the surface but obviously dreams of romance as evidenced in a scene where she dances in the abandoned facade of a long destroyed building which resembles ancient Greek or Roman ruins. Later, she repeats the dance with Hodiak who is so kind and a perfect representation of the type of young man any family would love to have as a visitor during a time of war, or even peace. Like the other romantic war films I mention above, this has a bit of a tear-jerking finale that shows off the American propaganda machine at its best. Yet, it is filled with hope, which is all America could ask for as the war reached its last year.

malcolmjames I feel I have to take issue with the previous comments from a reader who says they cannot understand why previous readers gave it ten stars. This is the reason I am giving it ten stars as my favourite picture that I first saw in the early 50s. The comments made about John Hodiak not appearing until the end of the picture are wrong. When Hodiak does appear he works solid through to the end of the picture. The comments made about this not being a great film as it was shot on the back lot of Fox are rubbish. I have a lot of the backlot stills that were never seen by the public but were kept by the child star Connie Marshall. A lot of work was put into this picture.Sure it was shot on the back lot of Fox. So was "Casablanca" shot on the back lot of WB and the airport scene at the end shot at Van Nuys airport. That was a great film wasn it? This was child star Connie Marshall's first picture and she was not on the credits as "Introducing" but among the lead cast. As somebody who has been in the film industry and a film buff all his life I appreciate cinema more that anybody. If you are going to vote on a film learn the history about it and not that it was cheaply made. There was a war on at the time this was made and it was made as fantasy to please the picturegoing public. Looking at the votes given on this site it appears to have just done that.The cinema was there for all of us to escape the outside world and live in a fantasy world for a few hours, this picture gave us just that.Top stars, great story, great music and make believe. A pure gem. I hope I have explained now why I personally gave this a top rating and why it will always be my favourite picture.

jacksflicks 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.

Ron Oliver A poor family living on a houseboat plans a very special Sunday DINNER FOR A SOLDIER.Here is an excellent example of the type of movie Hollywood produced during World War Two as morale boosting entertainment. It depicts the decency of the folks on the Home Front that the guys in the military were fighting to preserve and protect. Today, its unabashed nostalgia & romanticism greatly add to its appeal.Anne Baxter stars as the determined young woman who must hold her family together during difficult times; the prospects of an affluent, but loveless, marriage only add to her strain. Appearing late in the film is John Hodiak as the gentle sergeant who comes wandering along Baxter's beach at exactly the right time. Together they epitomize the wistful longing which is forever associated with the warrior leaving for battle and the loved one left behind. Appropriately, Baxter & Hodiak were later to marry in real life. (Tragically, John Hodiak would die of a heart attack in 1955 at the age of only 41.)Old Charles Winninger steals most of his scenes as Baxter's delightfully incorrigible 'Grandfeathers.' Her younger siblings are very well played by Billy Cummings, Connie Marshall, with her beloved pet hen, and little Bobby Driscoll, standing on his head, in one of his earliest film roles.Two Oscar winning actresses enliven their smaller roles: Anne Revere as an outspoken chicken farmer who enjoys a playful feud with Winninger; and Jane Darwell as the community's liaison with the local air base. Gravel-voiced Chill Wills plays a friendly bus driver.Near the end of the film movie mavens will recognize silent screen comic Chester Conklin as a photographer and Rory Calhoun as the sergeant who grabs Hodiak's strawberry cake, both uncredited.'I'll See You In My Dreams' is the lovely old tune which ties together the romantic elements throughout the film.