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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Nice service comedy with a twist, 28 November 1999
7/10
Author: Robert Keser (rfkeser@ix.netcom.com) from Chicago, IL

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.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
During WWII a young American have difficulties to prove his love for his country, 22 October 2006
10/10
Author: gerardoarias6 from Brazil

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

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
quite funny, and typically fordian, 4 October 2005
6/10
Author: j-cf from France

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!!!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Modest Comedy From Ford., 20 May 2008
5/10
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

You have to keep your eyes open to see John Ford as a motivating force behind this slender but still successful comedy. If it weren't for the rituals -- civil and military -- and the booze, well, it would be hard to tell.

Dan Dailey is the first man from Punxatawy, West Virginia, to enlist after Pearl Harbor but his boyish thirst for action goes unslaked when he is posted as a gunnery instructor at a local airfield. Two years pass, during which the townspeople who were so proud of him become used to his always hanging around while the war goes on elsewhere. (Some hero.) Despite his insistence, the Air Force will not give him combat duty. Instead he collects stripes and good conduct medals at home. His father, William Demarest, is frankly irritated with him.

Suddenly Dailey is assigned to a B-17 bound for England, as a last-minute replacement for a crew member. The plane runs out of fuel and Dailey accidentally bails out over France instead of England. Here he is picked up and quizzed by the maquis in the person of Corrine Calvet, tempting as creme brulee. She gives him some important film about the German V-2 rocket sites and, to get him through German lines, pretends to marry him during a loud party. He drinks too much wine and the next morning is hustled aboard a British Motor Torpedo Boat suffering from lack of sleep and a calamitous hangover. The crew of the MTB believe he's sea sick and force feed him a tot of rum which mostly spills down his chest. He delivers the film to the astounded authorities in England. He can barely keep awake so they give him a belt of scotch to revive him. He's immediately flown back to Washington, crowded behind the pilot in a P-38. He's groggy from lack of sleep so the pilot gives him a shot of cognac which Dailey feebly pushes away. During his report to General Marshall, he mumbles and weaves before passing out, so they try to give him some bourbon to revive him before he is whisked away to a hospital. By this time, Dailey is incoherent and the physicians try to put him in a straight jacket before he manages an escape. He makes it back to Punxatawny on a freight train, staggers to his home and begins to crawl in through the kitchen window. His father mistakes him for a burglar and whops him over the head with a night stick. To revive him, his mother gives him a glass of cooking sherry. Mistaking it for milk, Dailey takes a gulp or two then spews out the rest all over the floor. All is resolved and Dailey is to be given a medal by the president. As he is being flown away, the CO of the local airfield smiles and says, "Remind me to give that boy a good conduct medal." It's nothing like the comic interludes of "What Price Glory," more amusing than funny. Dailey worked with Ford on two other pictures and there are a few familiar faces here and there -- Jack Pennick as a drill sergeant. It's never slow. The pace is fast but somehow feels forced, as if Ford were anxious to get through it and begin something that interested him more.

A lot depends on Dan Dailey as the central figure, and actually he's pretty good. He never seems to have found a niche in Hollywood. He was tall and was a decent hoofer but was mostly confined to supporting roles or as part of an ensemble. His acting style was bluff and straightforward but perhaps he didn't have the face of a leading man. And he didn't grow into an interesting character actor either. All of it a minor puzzle. Ford didn't provide much help. All of Ford's movies had comic elements in them but, like Alfred Hitchcock, his essays at pure comedy, like "Donovan's Reef," didn't quite click. Comedy was Howard Hawks territory.

It's worth seeing, this movie, a perky and good-natured comedy.

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Never seen it before---And LOVED IT!!!, 12 December 2007
10/10
Author: elskootero-1 from FLA-United States

I saw this movie for the first time at 2:30 AM on TCM and loved it. It was a little hard to follow, not seeming like a comedy or drama, but it showed it's true color quickly, and was great. Dan Daley was fabulous as the somewhat goofy GI perpetually stuck assigned to his hometown, yet wanting to go overseas, and Corinne Calvet WOW! What a babe! And the actress who played his girlfriend-also WOW! The whole cast was great, and the plot funny and workable, once you give it a chance. I can't wait to get this one on DVD, so I can see Vera Miles, another super-babe, in her first, if brief movie role. See this one if and when you can, it's worth the time!!!

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Fair Ford, 28 February 2008
Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY

When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)

** (out of 4)

John Ford's comedy about a man (Dan Dailey) who joins the Army to become a war hero but he ends up in the recruiting section back in his hometown, which gets the people there thinking he's a coward. I'm not sure what it is but these Ford comedies just aren't working for me. The whole idea is that the character is a very brave man but due to his placing, people thinks he's a coward. This one joke runs throughout the entire film and it just never made me laugh. I never got bored with the film but without any laughs there's really not much else going on. Dailey is very good in his role and keeps the film moving along. Colleen Townsend and William Demarest are also good as his parents. The film is a comedy but as expected Ford treats the war stuff very serious including during the opening when we hear about the attack of Pearl Harbor. This film shares a lot with Preston Sturges's Hail! The Conquering Hero but that film works a lot better. Vera Miles has her film debut here but I didn't spot her.

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9 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Misfired comedy attempt loses impact due to sour premise, 8 January 2001
4/10
Author: Arne Andersen (aandersen@landmarkcollege.org) from Putney, VT

With John Ford at the helm, one expected a quality piece, but this one is very disappointing. Ford, after all, was not a master at comedic direction. The premise is that Dan Dailey plays a home town lug, who volunteers for the service at the outbreak of war and is then stationed in his hometown for the duration. All attempts to get in the action or even get a transfer are turned down because he is a master at teaching gunning and the Army doesn't want to lose him. He loses face and then becomes a paraiah for his fellow townspeople and finally his own family. He eventually gets a mission that brings back such top secret information he can't share it - and when he disobeys his order and does share it with his family, they don't believe it. His parents and the townsfolk come across as such nasty, stupid, pseudo-patriotic, brainless masses that one comes to hate them. Consequently the premise is NOT funny and the film is one big dud. Oddly enough it was Oscar nominated for Original Story, which I felt was undeserving. I don't believe this misfired attempt at a comedy deserved any recognition whatsoever. Dailey tries valiantly but can't save it. Only for those with insomnia.

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