One of the things I liked about Hail The Conquering Hero is the fact it got made at all during World War II America. The idea of a man medically discharged from the Marines passing himself off as the great hero from Guadalcanal, even at the behest of some Marines he meets in a bar is ludicrous on its face. But by golly Preston Sturges pulled it off.
Think about it, within a year of the end of World War II a genuine 4F with no pretense about it would be a great American hero in Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life. In the end both George Bailey and Woodrow Pershing Lafayette Truesmith would be the saviors of their respective small towns.
Generally however a military record of some kind was going to be a necessity in politics after World War II. Hubert H. Humphrey had a legitimate draft deferment and was Mayor of Minneapolis during the latter part of World War II. But his lack of war record contrasted badly in running for president against John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Sturges realized that it's the integral part of his satire of small town life and politics. Certain forces within Eddie Bracken's town would like to use his new found celebrity status to make him mayor to unseat bloviating Raymond Walburn at his bloviating best on screen. Ideas about how to govern get real lost in the political process, the same way they do in Sturges's first real success, The Great McGinty.
Bracken who after Sturges left Paramount gradually slipped back in the ranks of supporting players is in the hands of the director who knew how to utilize his schnook persona the best. Poor Bracken is the posthumous son of a World War I Marine hero who died at Belleau Wood and those were the first Americans in combat in that war. When the second World War comes, he enlists hoping to emulate his late father whose unseen presence was felt growing up.
But he's washed out due to hay fever and can't face coming home and disappoint sweetheart Ella Raines, mother Georgia Caine, and aunt Elizabeth Patterson. He buys a round at a bar for some returning Marines from the Pacific led by William Demarest who knew his father back in the day.
The Marines cheer him up and Demarest gets the bright idea of passing him off as a great war hero, discharged due to battle wounds. They accompany Bracken back to his home and his political 'career' mushrooms from there.
Hail The Conquering Hero earned Preston Sturges a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and he was up against himself in that category for Miracle At Morgan's Creek. His films canceled each other out and Wilson won the Oscar in 1944 in that category.
You know if they had succeeded in pulling this off, I do wonder how Bracken might have done trying to get Veteran's benefits later on.
But Hail The Conquering Hero is Preston Sturges at his best.
Think about it, within a year of the end of World War II a genuine 4F with no pretense about it would be a great American hero in Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life. In the end both George Bailey and Woodrow Pershing Lafayette Truesmith would be the saviors of their respective small towns.
Generally however a military record of some kind was going to be a necessity in politics after World War II. Hubert H. Humphrey had a legitimate draft deferment and was Mayor of Minneapolis during the latter part of World War II. But his lack of war record contrasted badly in running for president against John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Sturges realized that it's the integral part of his satire of small town life and politics. Certain forces within Eddie Bracken's town would like to use his new found celebrity status to make him mayor to unseat bloviating Raymond Walburn at his bloviating best on screen. Ideas about how to govern get real lost in the political process, the same way they do in Sturges's first real success, The Great McGinty.
Bracken who after Sturges left Paramount gradually slipped back in the ranks of supporting players is in the hands of the director who knew how to utilize his schnook persona the best. Poor Bracken is the posthumous son of a World War I Marine hero who died at Belleau Wood and those were the first Americans in combat in that war. When the second World War comes, he enlists hoping to emulate his late father whose unseen presence was felt growing up.
But he's washed out due to hay fever and can't face coming home and disappoint sweetheart Ella Raines, mother Georgia Caine, and aunt Elizabeth Patterson. He buys a round at a bar for some returning Marines from the Pacific led by William Demarest who knew his father back in the day.
The Marines cheer him up and Demarest gets the bright idea of passing him off as a great war hero, discharged due to battle wounds. They accompany Bracken back to his home and his political 'career' mushrooms from there.
Hail The Conquering Hero earned Preston Sturges a nomination for Best Original Screenplay and he was up against himself in that category for Miracle At Morgan's Creek. His films canceled each other out and Wilson won the Oscar in 1944 in that category.
You know if they had succeeded in pulling this off, I do wonder how Bracken might have done trying to get Veteran's benefits later on.
But Hail The Conquering Hero is Preston Sturges at his best.