It is perhaps advisable to recall, every few minutes, that when this first hit the nation's movie screens there was a war going on. Otherwise, viewed a safe distance from the general spirit of pulling-together, it may not be wholly clear why this Preston Sturges service comedy earned such hurrahs for the jovial aspersions it casts on war heroes, mothers, small towns. The story picks up Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, the only son of a fallen hero of the Great War, after he has been rejected from the Marines for reasons of hay fever; and it follows him, or forces him, into a triumphal homecoming trumped up by six Guadalcanal veterans who lend him their medals, and invent tales of valor to go with them, for no discernible motive except their vicarious appreciation of home cooking, Mom, the girl next door, picket fences, front porches, and such. The enduring moments, here, are mostly in the area of ambivalences; and, whether from the speed and sketchiness or the necessary circumspection, there is no shortage of ambivalences, although just as often the movie belongs to blustery caricatures who believe in hitting a nail squarely on the head and hitting it with the force of a pile driver. Eddie Bracken, in the strenuous lead role, seems to be involved in something desperately beyond his capacities, and in that, the actor's predicament matches the character's perfectly. With Ella Raines, William Demarest, Freddie Steele, Franklin Pangborn. (1944) — Duncan Shepherd