alr

Hail the Conquering Hero

Screening on Film
Directed by Preston Sturges .
With Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn .
US, 1944, 35mm, black & white, 101 min.
Print source: Universal

Preston Sturges made nearly all of his best films at Paramount, first as a screenwriter, then as a writer-director. His was an ambitious comic talent that sought ever more trenchant satiric targets. Thus it was that at the height of World War II, he filmed two screenplays tackling homefront attitudes towards the war effort, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. The latter of these illustrates the disjuncture between the civilian idealization of returning troops and their actual experience by depicting the plight of a young man rejected by the army only to find upon his return that his entire hometown believes him to be a war hero. Although the film ultimately pulls some of its punches, the underlying caustic intent remains unmistakable, as does Sturges’ skill at creating unforgettably idiosyncratic character roles and colorful dialogue. 

Part of film series

Read more

100 Years of Paramount Pictures

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Música de Câmara. The Cinema of Rita Azevedo Gomes

Read more

From the Harvard Film Archive Collection …

Read more

Chile Año Cero / Chile Year Zero

Read more

People and their Virtue. Two Films by Wang Bing

Read more

Trenque Lauquen by Laura Citarella

Read more

I Heard It Through the Grapevine with James Baldwin

Read more

Filmmaker, Guest Worker: Zelimir Zilnik’s Expatriates

Read more

Adachi Masao’s Revolution+1

Read more

Out of the Ashes – The US-ROK Security Alliance & the Emergence of South Korean Cinema