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"Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat." Military mementos are a dime a dozen at the nightclub, leathernecks fresh off Guadalcanal nevertheless get a free round of drinks courtesy of the shrimpy mope at the end of the counter. Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, heir of Hinky Dinky, Eddie Bracken in a congested parody of James Stewart's Capra Christs. Chronic hay fever keeps him from seeing combat, the camera in the middle of a long take dollies in for a close-up of the rejected Marine rattling off the names of famous battles with lyrical yearning. Sarge (William Demarest) suggests a masquerade of valor for the benefit of the fellow's mother (Georgia Caine), no such thing as a simple plan for Preston Sturges, the homecoming balloons from dueling brass bands to frenzied political campaigns. "Well, you just let it blow over." "Did you ever see a statue blow over?" Enlisting for battle but getting drafted for City Hall, the satirical vortex of hapless phony and steamrolling hoopla, the celebratory crowd that might be a lynch mob. The corrupt Mayor (Raymond Walburn) is stunned by new competition, the overprotective lug (Freddie Steele) is remembered in Mackendrick's The Ladykillers. The ex-girlfriend (Ella Raines) meanwhile learns how hard war can be on women: "Either they take your men away and never send them back at all, or they send them back unexpectedly just to embarrass you. No consideration at all." Sturges ponders the unloosened energy of patriotic idolatry in remarkably packed frames, his symphonic sense of laughter and dismay is pulled into Demarest's shrug in church. "Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne pas savoir demeurer en repos, dans une chambre." With Bill Edwards, Jimmie Dundee, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson, Al Bridge, Jimmy Conlin, Harry Hayden, Esther Howard, Arthur Hoyt, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and Chester Conklin. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |