“‘His story is taken from Government files...because they didn't want it!' giggled the newspaper ads in 1950, adding a picture of Corinne Calvet in a tight, off-the-shoulders blouse, captioned, ‘Yvonne of the French Underground...she almost made Willie lose his Good Conduct Medal.' If the tone of the ad seems a bit uncomfortable, it may be because no one knew quite what to make of John Ford's odd service comedy, starring Dan Dailey as a small-town boy who is treated as a hero when he enlists at the start of World War II - only to become an object of scorn when the Army stations him Stateside. Even when Dailey goes to France on a dangerous, top-secret mission, no one believes he was ever gone. William K. Everson notes that Willie is ‘more like a Preston Sturges movie than a John Ford movie' - not only for its similarity with Sturges' earlier Hail the Conquering Hero, but for the presence of William Demarest, Sturges' most brilliant stock player, as a bellicose American Legionnaire. Critical opinions are sharply divided; Charles Silver describes Willie as ‘an almost pure case of a giant twiddling one thumb,' Peter Bogdanovich considers it ‘a look at the Army by a Navy man,' while a contemporary review cites it as ‘a runaway farce...with a lively flair for broad strokes of comedy.' In any case, Willie is one of the most rarely-screened of Ford's mature films - making this a must for serious Fordians.” --Michael Goodwin