When Willie Comes Marching Home

There's an interesting drama developing about halfway through this movie until it suddenly becomes a little comedic war movie. Well, I think Ford was at a period in his career where he had really tried to do something different with The Fugitive, got slapped down hard by critics and the movie going audiences, and just retreated into crowd pleasers. When Willie Came Marching Home isn't a bad movie by any means, but it's so light, frothy, and ultimately unfocused that it's not really good either. It's okay. It's mildly entertaining for 82 minutes.

It's 1941 in Punxsutawney, West Virginia and William Kluggs (Dan Dailey) is just another guy in the town, practicing with his band in the back of the local drug store because it's owned by the father of one of his friends, and he has a girl, Marge (Colleen Townsend). When news reaches the small town of the attack on Pearl Harbor, William is the first in line to volunteer to enlist for the armed forces. His town is ever so proud of him, throwing him celebrations for his desire to serve his country. On top of the world, he tells Marge's younger brother Charlie (Jimmy Lydon) that he's not old enough to join up and that he needs to let the older guys take care of the Japanese. Basic goes well, especially when his drill sergeant discovers his incredible skill as a gunner, and he's ready to be shipped off to war. The train back east from boot camp makes a stop at a familiar place, though, and William finds himself back in Punxsutawney with a twelve hour leave before they continue on. Feted again, he's still king of the town.

That is, until he finds out the next day that he's going no further. He's being stationed at the base five miles away as a gunner instructor for airmen. Two years pass as news reaches the United States of Patton's movements through Africa and beginning up into Italy, but William just stays on base, always asking to go and always being denied, granted medals of Good Conduct instead, and going home on a weekly basis for dinner. His star has faded in the town, and he's gone from hero to object of derision.

Up until this point, I was mildly entertained, but there were about two minutes where I thought this movie was going to turn into another hidden gem of a find, lost in the bulk of Ford's length body of work. Charlie has gone to war, joined the navy and fought in the Pacific, given a weeklong furlough back home. There's a celebration in Charlie's honor that William reluctantly goes to. Charlie is regaling the older members of town, who all saw action in World War I, with his tales of action, and Charlie has nothing against William's experiences during the war, knowing how dangerous student pilot missions can be. However, the elders are dismissive of William and push him away, shutting him down when he tries to relate experiences that were as life threatening as Charlie's. Dejected, he leaves the party. I really, honestly, thought the movie was going to pursue this line for the rest of the runtime, and I was prepped.

That's not what I got, though. William's efforts to go into combat finally come true when he volunteers as a last second replacement belly gunner for a flying fortress destined for England, and the movie becomes something close to a slapstick comedy. William falls asleep upon the aircraft's approach into England, stymied by heavy fog that leads the crew to abandoning the plane, pointing it directly south, and leaving William aboard on accident. When he wakes up, he jettisons as well, ending up in the hands of French Resistance fighters. After proving his Americanness by answering questions about who Mickey Mantle plays for and such, he witnesses the launching of a German rocket that Yvonne (Corinne Calvet) has filmed. He then has to become the vessel for getting the film back to England for British intelligence through getting drunk at a wedding, riding a torpedo boat through enemy fire, onto a motorcycle to London, and finally delivering the intelligence to command personnel.

His adventures aren't over yet as he must report to the American command in Washington which includes a flight in a fighter plane all the way back across the Atlantic, robbing him of any sleep over the eleven hours that precede several tellings of the same story to different personnel in the Pentagon, leading to a temporary stay in a psych ward before he escapes onto a train that lands back at Punxsutawney where he gets praise for his top secret work that he accidentally came upon.

It's a slightly entertaining way to give William his victory in the eyes of the townspeople who had begun to deride him for not contributing, giving him a wildly eventful three days that ends with him back in his own living room. It's not hilarious or anything, not the kind of ratcheting up of comedy that something like Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three is, but it's fine. I would have been okay with the film using the dramatic center point of the film as a turning point into making the film overall an outright laugh riot, but I never had more than a mild grin on my face.

It's a fine little movie, mostly lost amidst the years of the Cavalry Trilogy, and it's easy to see why. In the middle of three John Wayne westerns, a little movie about a guy who can't get into World War II just feels wane.

I have seen this film 55 years ago. My brother and I found it excellent, with natural acting actors and plenty of fine humor. Years later I always remembered with pleasure some parts of it, but I didn't remember neither the original name, nor the director. Recently, researching John Fords films I find this site. Trying to find more films from one of my preferred directors. I read about ¨When Willy come marching home". It was amazing as I realized that this was the Film I never dreamed to find again. I cannot remember so much to be sure that my recollections are correct. I need to see this film again in order to do a more exact comment. During all this years I have seen thousands of films. If "When Willy come marching home" let such an impression on me during all this time, I believed it should be a very good one.

Gerardo Arias

It was very hard to make a good comedy about such a tragic event as WW 2, but this film succeeds at it, somehow. With a wonderful performance by leading man, Dan Dailey, and great supporting roles by a bevy of fine B actors, the film is even superior to Hail the Conquering Hero. I will not go into the convoluted, but hilarious, plot of the film, but suffice it to say, the movie does not take off for the first twenty minutes or so. Be patient; it will go from zero to sixty in the final fifty minutes. Be sure to catch this underrated gem of a soldier who has trouble getting into action, and even more trouble getting out of it.

Nobody can say that this is a masterpiece, because this picture was made by John Ford. And, as everyone knows, John Ford can't make a good comedy... This is all rubbish!! This is a good entertaining fordian reflexion about war, patriotism and life (in the army or in a provincial town). Ford is not an aggressive filmmaker like could have been Sturges (by the way, I love Sturges too, but for different reasons), and his look at his characters is tender, full of compassion and amusement, even if the main subject (war) is not funny, a fact which is here quite explicit. Ford knows the weakness points of his compatriots, but denounces them without anger. He is part of America, and is clever enough to know it and not to take everything too seriously. Any Ford's movie is, in some way or another, a comedy. That's his stuff, and even his most somber dramas are kind of comedies. See the cavalry trilogy, or even "how green...": in every Ford movie a character (most often, several) plays a funny-tender part. That's Ford's universe, with his highlights and his lousy pictures. This one is quite in the middle, so definitely worth watching!!!

This unjustly neglected comedy is a variation on Preston Sturges's HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO. The first half, while well-acted and fluently directed, suffers from the comparison, especially with Sturges regular William Demarest playing a major role. However, about halfway through, the plot takes an original and unexpected twist, revealing that the first part was actually an ironic set-up for something funnier. Dan Dailey is fine as the endlessly frustrated soldier, Corinne Calvet looks absolutely stunning, and John Ford keeps everything moving.