When Willie Comes Marching Home

Last updated
When Willie Comes Marching Home
When Willie Comes Marching Home - 1950 poster.jpg
1950 Theatrical Poster
Directed by John Ford
Screenplay by Richard Sale
Mary Loos
Story by Sy Gomberg
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Starring Dan Dailey
Corinne Calvet
Colleen Townsend
William Demarest
Cinematography Leo Tover
Edited by James B. Clark
Music by Alfred Newman
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • February 17, 1950 (1950-02-17)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,750,000 [1] [2]
Title Card When Willie Comes Marching Home title from trailer.jpg
Title Card

When Willie Comes Marching Home is a 1950 World War II comedy film directed by John Ford and starring Dan Dailey and Corinne Calvet. It is based on the 1945 short story "When Leo Comes Marching Home" by Sy Gomberg. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival. [3]

Contents

Sy Gomberg also received an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story at the 23rd Academy Awards in 1951 but was edged out for the award by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt for Panic in the Streets .

The film was referred to in M*A*S*H (1970), directed by Robert Altman.

Plot

William "Bill" Kluggs is the first in his hometown of Punxatawney, West Virginia, to enlist in the Army Air Forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor, making his father Herman, mother Gertrude and girlfriend Marge Fettles proud. The whole town sees him off. Willie tries to become a pilot but washes out, although he proves to be so proficient at aerial gunnery that, rather than being sent to Europe to fight, he is made an instructor and assigned to a base near his hometown. After two years in the same place, he is branded a coward by the townsfolk, even though he continually requests a transfer into combat.

He finally gets his chance when a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber gets sick and Bill is allowed to take his place. The plane takes off for England, but owing to fog, is unable to land and runs low on fuel. The crew is ordered to bail out, but Bill is asleep and does not parachute out of the plane until it is over German-occupied France.

He is captured immediately by the local French Resistance unit, led by Yvonne. While there, he sees a secret German rocket launch, which is filmed by the Resistance. He and the film are picked up by a British torpedo boat and taken to England. There, he passes the vital information and his eyewitness confirmation on to a series of important generals, first in London and then in Washington, D.C.

All this time, he is not allowed to sleep and plied with liquor as a pick-me-up or to settle motion sickness. Bill finally collapses, exhausted. He is sent to a military hospital to recuperate, under strict orders not to reveal anything. A doctor mistakenly puts him into the psychopathic ward. Willie escapes and heads home on a freight train.

Despite his strict orders, he tells his father and girlfriend what he has accomplished. Only four days have elapsed since he left Punxatawney, and they do not believe his story. Then officers arrive to return him to Washington to be decorated personally by the President of the United States.

Cast

Mae Marsh, formerly a successful silent-era actress, appears in an unbilled role. Alan Hale Jr. and Vera Miles also appear in unbilled roles, early in their respective careers.

Production

Hollywood precision pilot Paul Mantz performed the crash stunt in which a PT-13D Stearman military training aircraft shears off its wings crashing between two oak trees. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Beautiful Girls</i> (film) 1996 film directed by Ted Demme

Beautiful Girls is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ted Demme and written by Scott Rosenberg. Its story follows New York jazz pianist Willie Conway, as he heads back to his hometown of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts for his high school reunion, where he finds his friends evaluating their lives and relationships. It stars Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Rosie O'Donnell, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman.

"Treehouse of Horror VI" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the sixth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It first aired on Fox in the United States on October 29, 1995, and contains three self-contained segments. In "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", an ionic storm brings Springfield's oversized advertisements and billboards to life and they begin attacking the town. The second segment, "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace", is a parody of the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, in which Groundskeeper Willie attacks schoolchildren in their sleep. In the third and final segment, "Homer3", Homer finds himself trapped in a three-dimensional world, Earth. It was inspired by the 1962 The Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost". The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, Steve Tompkins, and David X. Cohen and was directed by Bob Anderson.

Sy Gomberg was an American Oscar-nominated film screenwriter, producer, and activist, who taught screenwriting to University of Southern California students for over a decade.

"Principal Charming" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 14, 1991. In the episode, Marge asks Homer to find a husband for her sister Selma. Homer invites Principal Skinner to dinner after Bart gets caught vandalizing the school's lawn. Skinner's dinner with the Simpsons fails to go as planned when he instead falls for Selma's twin sister Patty.

<i>Rope of Sand</i> 1949 film by William Dieterle

Rope of Sand is a 1949 American adventure-suspense film noir directed by William Dieterle, produced by Hal Wallis, and starring Burt Lancaster and three stars from Wallis's Casablanca – Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre. The film introduces Corinne Calvet and features Sam Jaffe, John Bromfield, and Kenny Washington in supporting roles. The picture is set in South West Africa. Desert portions of the film were shot in Yuma, Arizona.

<i>My Friend Irma Goes West</i> 1950 film by Hal Walker

My Friend Irma Goes West is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and based on the radio show My Friend Irma. It stars the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The film is a sequel to My Friend Irma (1949) and was released on May 31, 1950 by Paramount Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corinne Calvet</span> French actress (1925–2001)

Corinne Calvet, born Corinne Dibos, was a French actress who appeared mostly in American films. According to one obituary, she was promoted "as a combination of Dietrich and Rita Hayworth", but her persona failed to live up to this description, though the fault lay as much with a string of mediocre films as with a lack of a compelling talent, for Calvet's sultry looks and flashing eyes were allied with an impish sense of humor. She eventually became better known for her fiery private life and some well-publicized legal battles.

<i>Sailor Beware</i> (1952 film) 1952 film by Hal Walker

Sailor Beware is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and starring the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. It is an adaption of a 1933 Kenyon Nicholson and Charles Robinson play of the same name. It was released on February 9, 1952 by Paramount Pictures. The working title was At Sea with the Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Dailey</span> American actor, dancer

Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American actor and dancer. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as Mother Wore Tights (1947).

<i>Barnacle Bill</i> (1941 film) 1941 feature film directed by Richard Thorpe

Barnacle Bill is a 1941 American comedy drama film starring Wallace Beery. The screen comedy was directed by Richard Thorpe. Barnacle Bill was the second of seven MGM films pairing Beery and character actress Marjorie Main.

<i>Up the River</i> 1930 film

Up the River is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy film directed by John Ford, and starring Claire Luce, Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. The plot concerns escaped convicts, as well as a female convict. It was the feature film debut role of both Tracy and Bogart. Despite Bogart being billed fourth, Tracy's and Bogart's roles were almost equally large, and this is the only film in which they appeared together. Up the River is also Bogart's only film directed by John Ford. Bogart's image is featured with Luce on some of the film's posters rather than Tracy's since Bogart was the romantic lead with Luce. Fox remade the film in 1938 starring Preston Foster and Tony Martin playing their roles.

<i>What Price Glory</i> (1952 film) 1952 film

What Price Glory is a 1952 American Technicolor war film based on a 1924 play by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings, though it used virtually none of Anderson's dialogue. Originally intended as a musical, it was filmed as a straight comedy-drama, directed by John Ford and released by 20th Century Fox on August 22, 1952, in the U.S. The screenplay was written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, and stars James Cagney and Dan Dailey as US Marines in World War I.

<i>Il bellAntonio</i> 1960 Italian-French drama film

Il bell'Antonio is a 1960 Italian-French drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale. It is based on the novel of the same name by Vitaliano Brancati and was adapted for the screen by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Gino Visentini, moving the novel's setting during Italy's fascist era to the present.

<i>Rotation</i> (film) 1949 film

Rotation is a 1949 East German drama film directed by Wolfgang Staudte and starring Paul Esser, Irene Korb and Werner Peters. It was produced under the auspices of the DEFA film studio in East Germany. It began filming on 29 September 1948 and premiered in theaters on 16 September 1949.

"Phantom 309" is a song written by Tommy Faile and released as a single by Red Sovine in 1967. It was a minor hit, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Magazine Country chart. The lyrics are spoken, rather than sung.

<i>Black Peter</i> (film) 1964 film

Black Peter is a 1964 film directed by Miloš Forman. It won the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival.

<i>So This Is Paris</i> (1955 film) 1954 film by Richard Quine

So This Is Paris is a 1954 American Technicolor romantic musical comedy film directed by Richard Quine. It stars Tony Curtis and Gloria DeHaven.

<i>Powder River</i> (film) 1953 film by Louis King

Powder River is a 1953 American Western film directed by Louis King and starring Rory Calhoun, Corinne Calvet and Cameron Mitchell.

<i>Flight to Tangier</i> 1953 film by Charles Marquis Warren

Flight to Tangier is a 1953 American action film directed by Charles Marquis Warren and starring Joan Fontaine, Jack Palance, and Corinne Calvet. It was released by Paramount Pictures in Technicolor and 3-D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Sawaya</span> American actor and stuntman

George Frances Carey Sawaya was an American actor and stuntman. He was best known for playing the role of Detective Lopez on Jack Webb's Dragnet.

References

  1. "Top Grosses of 1950". Variety. January 3, 1951. p. 58.
  2. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223
  3. "Winners of the Golden Leopard". Locarno. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  4. Editors, Air Classics, Challenge Publications, Canoga Park, California, July 1972, Volume 8, Number 8, page 39.