Sturges Scores Again!
Lately, Barb and I have been watching the most consistently enjoyable string of movies we’ve ever seen. During WWII, Preston Sturges broke Hollywood tradition by writing and directing his own films. He had a marvelous ear for dialogue. As one critic wrote, “His dialogue shoots and shoots and never misses.” It’s funny, clever, and memorable.
HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944) features Eddie Bracken as Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, the son of a WWI hero, whose dreams of following in his father’s footsteps have been crushed by hayfever. The ailment causes him to wash out of the marines after only one month of service. Too ashamed to go home, he spends a year working at a shipyard. One night in a bar, he buys some penniless marines drinks and sandwiches. They hear his story and become his pals, pushing him into going home. There they pass him off as a decorated hero like his daddy. One thing leads to another and, soon, Woodrow becomes a most unwilling candiate for mayor.
The film climaxes with the conscience-strickenn young man confessing the fraud and telling his disappointed constituents, “If I could reach as high as my father’s shoestrings… my whole life would be justified – and I would stand here before you proudly… instead of as the thief and the coward that I am.”
But the marines come through for Woodrow. After he trudges off, “Sarge,” played by the always dependable, always enjoyable William Demarest, tells the crowd the rest of the story–what the young man had done for a bunch of strangers in a bar and what courage he’d displayed, equalling that of any man under fire. Sarge’s appeal makes the townspeople want Woodrow as their mayor even more.
The ending of HAIL is as stirring as any I’ve seen:
Woodrow: I knew the Marines could do almost anything, but I never knew they could do anything like this.
Bugsy [one of the marines]: You got no idea!
Woodrow: Will you come back?
Sarge: Well, we always come back before. So long, everybody… see youse in church!
As the marines salute off the back of their departing train, Woodrow mouths the words, “Semper fidelis.” The scene moves me just writing about it.
Get HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO. Get any Preston Sturges film you can lay your hands on. You’ll like it!
