When Willie Comes Marching Home

Infobox Film
name = When Willy Comes Marching Home


image_size =
caption = from the film's trailer
director = John Ford
producer =
writer = Sy Gomberg (story)
Richard Sale
narrator =
starring = Dan Dailey
Corinne Calvet
Colleen Townsend
William Demarest
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = February 1950
runtime = 82 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0043129

"When Willie Comes Marching Home" is a 1950 World War II comedy film directed by John Ford and starring Dan Dailey and Corinne Calvet.

Plot

William "Bill" Kluggs (Dan Dailey) is the first in his hometown to enlist in the army after the attack on Pearl Harbor, making his father Herman (William Demarest), mother Gertrude (Evelyn Varden) and girlfriend Marge Fettles (Colleen Townsend) proud. The whole town sees him off. However, after basic training, he proves to be such a good marksman that, rather than being sent to Europe to fight, he is made an instructor and assigned to a base near his town. 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 doesn't parachute out of the plane until it is over German-occupied France.

He is captured immediately by the local French Resistance unit, led by the beautiful Yvonne (Corinne Calvet). While there, he sees a secret German rocket launch, which is filmed by the French. 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 important generals, first in London and then in Washington, D.C. Exhausted, he is sent to a hospital to recuperate, with strict orders not to reveal what he has done. When the hospital attendants believe he is crazy and try to put him in a straitjacket, Willie escapes and heads home on a freight train.

Back home, his parents and girlfriend don't believe his story either, until some army officers arrive to take him to Washington to receive an award from the President of the United States.

Cast

*Jimmy Lydon as Charles "Charlie" Fettles
*Lloyd Corrigan as Major Adams
*Evelyn Varden as Mrs. Gertrude Kluggs

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.

External links

*tcmdb title|id=95515