Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Let's be realistic.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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 was an odd man out in Hollywood in his day. Independent and full of great story ideas. This was another one of those good ideas.If you need a little Patriotism in your life, then see this film. It'll make you feel good right down to your socks.Eddie Bracken plays a depressed couldn't get in the Marines because of hay-fever guy who happens to run into some real Marines that have run outta money in a restaurant. He pays for their drinks and they befriend him and listen to his troubles. They find out his father is an old Marine war hero from way back and they decide to take him back to see his mother and reinvent him as a war hero himself. After this, things turn a little screwy. Along the way there's a mild little love story mixed in and a possible run for mayor thrown in.Eddie Bracken and William Demarest are the stand out stars in this one. Sturges always goes back to his acting stalwarts to get some good performances and these 2 guys bring the goods.All I can say that makes this worth watching is if you wanna laugh and feel good and have a sense of Patriotism, look no further than this film. It has it all.

This typically madcap Preston Sturges satire about a 4F Marine reject (Eddie Bracken, suffering from chronic hay fever) who ultimately proves his bravery by admitting his cowardice makes a fitting companion piece to 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek'. But perhaps it needs to be seen in the proper historical context of wartime deprivation and homefront morale boosting. Unlike the more daring comedy of the earlier film Sturges here wants to have it both ways: mocking the gullibility of Main Street USA while at the same time celebrating its innocence. Mom and apple pie emerge triumphant, as does the little soldier, and the war effort is well served in the process. Sturges was always a master of sophisticated slapstick entertainment (an oxymoronic combination to most comedy filmmakers), but this time his famous dialogue was more fast than furious, if at least delivered with familiar gusto by the director's usual company of stock players.

Curiously enough, while I do admire and enjoy most of Sturges' films, I've never been quite as taken with him as his reputation would seem to demand. Nevertheless, I fully acknowledge his standing as one of the most important figures in Comedy.The thing is that, having started off as a writer (like his contemporary Billy Wilder), Sturges' peerless talent in this department kind of swamps his technical side (which is boldly integrated into the comedies of Frank Capra whereas it's more refined, but still palpable, in those of Ernst Lubitsch) – so that his films come across as undeniably erudite (which, however, clashes at times with their small-town settings and working-class characters) but also a bit loquacious! For me, the best comedy director remains Howard Hawks – in whose work the form not only appears effortless but is actually made to transcend genre (thus acquiring an artistry without resorting to undue camera gymnastics or editorial tricks). What Sturges' films may have lacked besides was that he rarely worked with bona-fide stars; instead, he amassed an enviable repertory of character actors around him and then let them rip – with the consequence that most of his canon emerges to be undisciplined and tiresomely frenetic! Anyway, after that rambling introduction, let's get down to the issue at hand: HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO can surely be counted among Sturges' finest. As were all of his films, it's an absolute original but also somewhat audacious (his previous outing, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK [1944], had tackled an even more outrageous and controversial theme) – this being a wartime comedy about the put-down of hero-worship! The plot sees milquetoast hero Eddie Bracken rejected for war duty because of hay fever; not wanting to break his mother's heart (his father was a hero of the previous war, incidentally), he only returns home after a year. He meets up with six marines on leave (the Sergeant among them happens to have served with Bracken's father) and they contrive to get him a hero's reception, thinking that all will blow over once they're there. However, the whole town shows up to greet him at the station with due fanfare – he's clearly embarrassed at this, but the soldiers persuade him to go along with the ruse for the time being. The situation escalates further when the town decides to erect a statue in Bracken's honor and, eventually, pushes him into an electoral campaign for the Mayor's seat! There's a predictably upbeat ending, following a Capraesque speech in which Bracken confesses the truth about his 'war record', where the people decide they still want him because – for once – they've been faced with an honest declaration!! Eddie Bracken may have had too limited a range to make it as a comic genius in the Bob Hope mold, but he certainly fit the Preston Sturges universe (characteristically, he's given an unwieldy – and ironic – name here). Leading the Sturges stock company is William Demarest as the fixer of a Sergeant who lands Bracken in more trouble with every new scheme to aid his 'case' (a memorable scene early on sees him attempting to trade service at a café with a collection of war 'mementos', only to have the owner turn out to be even more supplied with such worthless trinkets than he is!). Other members include typically well-meaning but perennially flustered Franklin Pangborn (his efforts to organize multiple bands at Bracken's reception are continually frustrated through lack of cooperation or outright incompetence from those concerned), Raymond Walburn (as the pompous and unpopular current mayor – whose similarly insensitive offspring is naturally engaged to Dad's secretary, the lovely Ella Raines) and, in smaller roles, Al Bridge, Jimmy Conlin and Torben Meyer.Raines herself – whom I'd only seen in film noirs – gets quite a well-rounded character (though her longing for a homespun life alongside Bracken feels decidedly idealized). Also notable is ex-boxing champ Freddie Steele, playing an orphaned soldier who finds in Bracken's mother a surrogate parent – often berating him (both verbally and physically) for what he deems Bracken's inconsiderate behavior towards her! This subplot introduces an element of sentimentality into the fray, which usually bothers me, but it was quite amusing here to see a big man like Steele go soft every so often.I should be getting soon to Sturges' most misunderstood film, THE GREAT MOMENT (1944), which would then leave me with only his little-seen directorial swan song – THE FRENCH, THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE aka THE DIARY OF MAJOR THOMPSON (1955) – to catch up with from his brief but highly individualistic oeuvre...