So ein Pechvogel

Although John Ford put in some touches that would make When Willie Comes Marching Home an identifiable Ford film, the film while good will never be considered in his top ten. It's more like the kind of service comedy Bob Hope would have done over at Paramount.

Dan Dailey is in the lead here and this would be the first of three films he did for John Ford, the other two being What Price Glory and The Wings Of Eagles. It's also the only one where we saw any of Dan Dailey's singing and dancing talents on display in a number.

Dailey who hails from Punxatawney, West Virginia is having as typical a Sunday as one would have been having in America on December 7, 1941. He's rehearsing with the band he plays trombone in when news of Pearl Harbor comes over the radio. His father William Demarest is head of the Punxatawney American Legion Post and as luck would have it Dailey is the first man drafted in the town.

But he turns out to be so skilled a marksman that he's needed as an instructor. And wouldn't you know it he's stationed at a new base near the old home town where everyone sees everyone else being shipped off to war. It plays havoc with your ego, even his girlfriend Colleen Townsend has her doubts especially since her brother was shipped off to the Pacific.

But within a week fortune both frowns and smiles on Dailey. He gets assigned as a belly gunner in a B-17 crew, gets shot down over France, meets beautiful resistance leader Corinne Calvet and performs a deed that might just change the course of the war. How that all works out you'll have to see When Willie Comes Marching Home.

I wasn't expecting to see Dailey sing and dance, but that's always a treat. He handles the comedy well, but Ford does not do comedy pictures. He's got a lot of rough house comedy in some of his best work, but they're not the center of the plot. This film would have also been better had a director like George Marshall or Frank Tashlin been at the helm. And while Dailey is good, Bob Hope would have made this a classic.

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.

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

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!!!

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.