Hail the Conquering Hero (Preston Sturges, 1944)

I do love Preston Sturgess. His films satisfy part of me that is very rarely catered too by modern cinema. With the exception of the Coens' Intolerable Cruelty (why don't more people love this film? I personally can't get enough of it.) and, to a lesser extent, Burn After Reading. And they have been directly influenced by him.

But while some of his films are movie heaven for me (Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Unfaithfully Yours) there are others that just don't do it (The Great McGinty). Unfortunately I think Hail the Conquering Hero (1944, Dir: Preston Sturgess) is more likely to come into the second category. I found myself fairly indifferent to it.

I think it is just a bit all over the place. It gets the crazy full pelt comedy moments just right. The marines talking ten to the dozen and inventing heroics make for great moments and the welcome home scene with all the bands playing at the wrong time is wonderful, but when it comes to the hero and heroine and the political element it seemed difficult to really care.

Eddie Bracken plays the fool and hams it up for the camera, but you don't get too much of an idea of the character, or why he makes the decisions he does. You also don't feel that he is that bothered that his girl is engaged to someone else. And when they inevitably get together there is little passion or even interest demonstrated.

The army theme sometimes gets a bit heavy handed, and while relevant at the time now feels quite strange to be talking about patriotism in that way. Although, you probably have to make concessions to the time it was made in it does feel as though it is very much of that time and it is inevitable that it won't translate in the same way now.

William Demarest is, as always, hilarious and gruff and crass and probably the highlight of the film.

One of the big disappointments was the dame. The female roles in Sturgess films are usually pretty ballsy and feisty, playing against more naive men, but Ella Raines barely gets a look in. She's awfully pretty and all but infinitely forgettable, which is a shame.

I think the film gets all the additional bits right but the central characters are just a bit dull and I think the film suffers for that with all the good bits forgotten so that you come away feeling that the whole venture was fairly pointless. A few laughs but if you are new to Sturgess I would give this one a miss.