World War II. Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith has been pretending that he is out of the country for a year, fighting in the Pacific, in order to oblige his mother, yet in reality, he was discharged from the army right from the start due to hay fever. In a bar, he buys a beer to six Marines back from the Battle of Guadalcanal, so the thankful Sergeant Heffelfinger decides to help him: they will return to his hometown, pretending that Woodrow really fought with them. Back home, Woodrow is shocked at the parade of the people in his honor, as well as the decision that he should run for Mayor against Mr. Noble in the upcoming election. Woodrow also finds out his girlfriend, Libby, is engaged to someone else. At a convention, Woodrow finally admits he never served a day in the army. He prepares to leave the town, but the people invite him to run for Mayor, anyway, amazed at his honesty.
Preston Sturges' final film for Paramount is a biting satire on World War II mythomania, a pathological tendency to exaggerate and tell lies in the name of patriotism, exposing them as a trait of people who want to cover a void in their empty lives, which reaches almost a universal message (the film is practically an accidental parody of the reputation of Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov). However, "Hail the Conquering Hero" is not particularly funny, exhausting its inspiration at face value of this concept, since the second half, in which Woodrow is pressured to run for Mayor, seems almost "off-topic", as if this political subplot was shoehorned into the story. Moreover, the character of Woodrow's live interest, Libby, is very underwritten. William Demarest almost steals the show and easily outshines everyone in the supporting role of Sargeant Heffelfinger, who does not shy away from bending the truth. One of the best jokes is near the start when he tries to order six beers at a bar and intend to pay it with, as he claims it, "General Yamatoho's tooth", but the bar owner beats him to the chase and presents numerous mementos that he already has ("MacArthur's suspenders! The first bullet that landed in Pearl Harbor... you can take your pick. A piece of a Japanese submarine.And if you look at it this way, it becomes a German submarine. And this way it's a piece of a shell that just missed Montgomery!"). The second best joke is the sequence where he is trying to persuade the coiled Woodrow to accept his role and play that he is a war hero who fought with them ("They want heroes? All right, we got six of them! All right, we throw a seventh for good luck, who's counting?... Who's telling lies upfront? Everyone of those boys is telling the truth, except they changed the names a little so as to not give out military information!"). Unfortunately, nobody else of the characters is even half as captivating as him. While somewhat abridged, "Hail the Conquering Hero" still has its moments of brilliance that will appeal to both the audience and the critics.
Grade:++
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