It starts with six Marines and it matters how we meet them. Just returned from the Pacific theatre, we see them entering a bar where they order a single beer because they've gambled away all but fifteen cents. Heroic? Sturges is just getting started.
Led by Sgt. Heffelfinger (William Demarest), they try to pay for the beer with one of General Yamamoto's teeth, actually an elk tooth rejected by the waiter ("Big man, was he?"). Suddenly beers and food arrive at their table, courtesy of a guy at the end of the bar: Woodrow Truesmith (Eddie Bracken), whose hay fever kept him out of the corps so he's been working alongside Rosie the Riveters. But he longed to be a Marine like his father, who died in World War I. He knows everything about the Marines, every battle, every regulation, and confesses that he's been lying to his mother and everyone back home, saying he is serving in the Pacific. The beer-wielding Marines take a liking to him, and decide to help him out by escorting him home in uniform. He protests vehemently because it disrespects the Marine Corps, but he's outnumbered by marines who couldn't care less. He bought them beers, quid pro quo. So much for military pride after they made it home in one piece.
It has all the wit and pace I've come to expect and treasure from Sturges, as well as characters who flesh out the comedy, particularly the marine who was an orphan and has trouble sleeping in the dark, and who honors Woodrow's mother beyond all reason. But the soul of the movie is Eddie Bracken, the honorable would-be soldier who never stops protesting as the marines' plan spirals out of control. His hometown welcomes him with enthusiasm that builds to nominating him for mayor. The cast is an ensemble of Sturges regulars, joined by Ella Raines as Woodrow's girl and Raymond Walburn as the fatuous sitting mayor ("In a few years, if the war goes on - heaven forbid - you won't be able to swing a cat without knocking down a couple of heroes").
I have to stop here because reviewing this movie just makes me want to see it again. No review can do it justice.
Led by Sgt. Heffelfinger (William Demarest), they try to pay for the beer with one of General Yamamoto's teeth, actually an elk tooth rejected by the waiter ("Big man, was he?"). Suddenly beers and food arrive at their table, courtesy of a guy at the end of the bar: Woodrow Truesmith (Eddie Bracken), whose hay fever kept him out of the corps so he's been working alongside Rosie the Riveters. But he longed to be a Marine like his father, who died in World War I. He knows everything about the Marines, every battle, every regulation, and confesses that he's been lying to his mother and everyone back home, saying he is serving in the Pacific. The beer-wielding Marines take a liking to him, and decide to help him out by escorting him home in uniform. He protests vehemently because it disrespects the Marine Corps, but he's outnumbered by marines who couldn't care less. He bought them beers, quid pro quo. So much for military pride after they made it home in one piece.
It has all the wit and pace I've come to expect and treasure from Sturges, as well as characters who flesh out the comedy, particularly the marine who was an orphan and has trouble sleeping in the dark, and who honors Woodrow's mother beyond all reason. But the soul of the movie is Eddie Bracken, the honorable would-be soldier who never stops protesting as the marines' plan spirals out of control. His hometown welcomes him with enthusiasm that builds to nominating him for mayor. The cast is an ensemble of Sturges regulars, joined by Ella Raines as Woodrow's girl and Raymond Walburn as the fatuous sitting mayor ("In a few years, if the war goes on - heaven forbid - you won't be able to swing a cat without knocking down a couple of heroes").
I have to stop here because reviewing this movie just makes me want to see it again. No review can do it justice.