A movie written by
Preston Sturges in 1943 and completed in 1944. It stars
Franklin Pangborn, Eddie Bracken, and William Demarest. 101 mins,
b and w. Pangborn stars as a small-town committee chairman organizing the homecoming for Woodrow (Bracken), who the town thinks is a war
hero. He was actually discharged for his chronic
hay-fever. Hilarity by way of extreme
awkwardness ensues.
Says Monty Python's Terry Jones: Conquering Hero had to contend with censorship and meet the patriotic aspirations of the government and the public. It does this while remaining effortlessly wry and subversive, and profoundly sceptical about love, politics and the celebration of heroism itself. (Sight and Sound, May 2000)