Wasn't wild about this. It was polished and everything and I know it's supposed to be a classic it just didn't do it for me. I think the story should be high satire but Sturges keeps pulling punches. And the justification feels strained. Eddie Bracken's goal is wholesome - to make his mother proud - but his mother doesn't need him to do it to feel proud. Ella Raines - very very miscast and unconvincing, Paramount were right to want to drop her - doesn't need him to be brave to love Bracken. The soldiers led by William Demarest go to very unconvincing lengths to sustain the lie. The townsfolk are naive but not evil. The baddies in the election aren't that bad.
Censorship and wartime sensitivity holds this back. There's not even classic sentimentality like, I dont know, visiting a veterans hospital or something. The various soldiers helping Demarest are varying in quality.
Maybe this could have worked with more sex. Bracken wants to "kiss" a girl who only dates heroes so the guys make up a story, then he's caught in a big drama and the girl's dad would threaten to shoot him otherwise. Demarest would've been better as a villain.
There's no sense of the small town feel that was so great in Miracle of Morgan's Creek.
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