Hail the Conquering Hero

Even though chronic hay fever keeps him from service in the Marines, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith tells everyone that he’s fighting overseas. All the while, he’s hiding out in a distant city, working in a munitions factory. When a group of down-on-their luck leathernecks hear the truth, they usher poor Woodrow back to his hometown for a hero’s welcome to ease his mother’s worried heart. Arguably Preston Sturges’ masterpiece, Hail the Conquering Hero is a film so ripe for remake it almost hurts. In classic screwball fashion, it takes on patriotism, the media, and politicians who manipulate war for their own benefit—and in the process, lampoons contemporary wartime culture in an almost frighteningly prescient way. Part of the seven-disk series: Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection.