Hail the Conquering Hero

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1h 41m

Comedy

List

95%

Tomatometer

21 Reviews

84%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

Like his war-hero father who was killed in action during World War I, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) leaves his small town to join the Marines during World War II. But when he's given a medical discharge after only a month, he takes a job at a San Diego shipyard and writes letters to his mother about his fictitious wartime exploits. When he returns home, he discovers that his innocent lies have spread further than he expected.

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Variety Staff

Variety

The deft hand of Preston Sturges molded this film, further proof that he is one of the industry's best writer-directors.

Nov 13, 2007

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

Wonderful satire on small-town jingoism, all the more remarkable in that it was made during World War II.

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

This riotously funny motion picture, this superlative small-town comedy, is also one of the wisest ever to burst from a big-time studio.

Rated: 5/5

May 20, 2003

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Not only is your cinematic education woefully incomplete, but your life has missed the boat on several hours of pure pleasure...

Jul 31, 2023

Full Review

Jose Maria Santos

Cine-Mundial

A Preston Sturgess comedy can't fail. [Full review in Spanish]

Sep 18, 2019

Full Review

James Agee

The Nation

It is a bewilderingly skillful picture, and the skill is used no more brilliantly to tell the story than to cover up the story's weaknesses and those of its author, Preston Sturges.

Sep 14, 2012

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Steve D

Not really cute or funny.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/25/24

Full Review

Alec B

Not really a satire of "Patriotism" but there's still interesting commentary on how easily one can lose a narrative especially when a frenzied mob is involved. Eddie Bracken should have gotten more leading roles like this one.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/09/24

Full Review

Audience Member

Some films truly represent the era in which they were made. "Hail the Conquering Hero" from 1944 nearly drowns in patriotism and proud symbolism. That dates it to an extent which hurts it somewhat. Yet the message of how people need and search for something or someone to rally behind is a much more alive and thriving conclusion. Eddie Bracken plays a soldier who is discharged over a year ago, but when he returns home he passes himself off as a war hero which rallies the town to try and make him mayor. Silly and fun. Corny and dated. Nominated for a Screenplay Oscar.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

razvan p

malevolent universe )

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Craig N

Sturgess' wartime comedy is a humzinger of a good time, lock stock and packed with prescient commentary on politics, human nature and stereotypes. The reward of his films isn't the fire cracker rattling of language, but the inversion and subversion of norms, types and expectations. Sturgess was no dummy, he was a Broadway playwright and even managed to get a movie made (past the censors) about a girl who got drunk, then pregnant with sextuplets. In Hail the Conquering Hero, he shines a light on small town America, and with just a few patriotic moments, he otherwise jabs and pokes at the fabric of American Life. Sturgess' films invite questions, are our Heroes heroic? Are our politicians out there for us? Is the bully all brawn? Never is someone who they seem, they are always much more than that. The beauty of these films is that Sturgess so readily points to people's polarity, shades, and seemingly opposite characteristics and qualities. No doubt, a real opportunity to any actor. In Hail, we have a real life famous boxer playing Bugsy, who's main concern is the well being of the mother figure. Yes, a macho mama's boy. We have a crook for a mayor who will be superceded by the most honest crook there ever was. You have marines who are lying, women who are 2-timing and mothers who are encouraging it. The amount of "filth" in a Sturgess movie is impressive, but it simply cannot be deemed as such -- and that is why his films got by the censors! What Sturgess demonstrates, is that even the worst among us, is redeemable. The best of us, are flawed. He gets down to humanities' brass taxes and at the core of his characters is heart. In Hail The Conquering Hero, the heart wins -- the great Eddie Bracken wins the girl because their hearts are in love, wins the race for mayor because his heart is in the right place, wins the friendship with Bugsy because they are enacting their best, highest and most loving selves. And the Marines, after all their questionable behavior (though never fully outlandish) leave on the train as heroes themselves, bringing a divided community together albeit through their questionable actions. It's a film with big set pieces, big crowds and a big heart.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/23/20

Full Review

Audience Member

Not really a satire of "Patriotism" but there's still interesting commentary on how easily one can lose a narrative especially when a frenzied mob is involved. Eddie Bracken should have gotten more leading roles like this one.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

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Preston Sturges

Director

Eddie Bracken

Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith

Ella Raines

Libby

Raymond Walburn

Mayor Everett D. Noble

William Demarest

Sgt. Heppelfinger

Bill Edwards

Forrest Noble

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Synopsis

Like his war-hero father who was killed in action during World War I, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) leaves his small town to join the Marines during World War II. But when he's given a medical discharge after only a month, he takes a job at a San Diego shipyard and writes letters to his mother about his fictitious wartime exploits. When he returns home, he discovers that his innocent lies have spread further than he expected.

Director: Preston Sturges
Screenwriter: Preston Sturges
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 9, 1944, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014
Runtime: 1h 41m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm, Flat (1.37:1)

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