What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945)

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Better Late Then Never

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

When people bemoan the glory days of Hollywood in general and MGM in particular, they forget that, back in the day when Hollywood made a LOT more movies than it does now, even MGM also made not just bad movies along with good ones, but also some very weak movies, which this most certainly is.What is amazing, indeed downright unbelievable, is that the worst part of this movie, the dishpan water thin script, was nominated for an Oscar. Granted, it was a weak year for that category, Original Screenplay. The other nominees were Dillinger, Music for Millions, Salty O'Rourke, and Marie-Louise. Have you seen any of them?It tells the supposedly funny misadventures of the hapless Cpl Marion Hargrove of the U.S. Army in the days after the Normandy landing. Hargrove and his platoon get sidetracked in a small Normand town, Marennes. (There is actually a town named Marennes in France, but it's in SW France, nowhere near Normandy.) There is some lame comedy with the pompous small-town mayor and his libidinous daughter, all obvious and forgettable. Then Hargrove and his friend (Keenan Wynn) head toward Paris by mistake. More misadventures. Plot lines run into dead ends. It isn't funny, or original, or interesting.Except for 5 minutes in the middle of everything, when Hargrove ends up working at an observation post, helping his superior officers call in firing instructions to the battery that is shelling a German outpost. Suddenly the movie becomes serious, and the script sounds as if the writers really knew what they were talking about.And then it goes back to more nonsense.It's not worth the time it takes to watch this. If you have the time to kill, it would be better to take a nap. You'll get more out of it.Unless you want to see what Hollywood, and even MGM, used to turn out between their unquestioned masterpieces in the days before television when the big studios ground out hundreds, rather than dozens, of pictures a year to feed the then insatiable American hunger for new movies.

inexplicably a corporal he and men get lost--enter french town as heroes --later reassigned to be liaisons with locals Jean Porter is adorableThis is a follow-up to Robert Walker's war film "See Here, Private Hargrove" but it isn't nearly as good. In fact, I think it's not even close!The film begins with Hargrove inexplicably becoming a corporal. His first command is a cock up, however, and they get separated from the rest of the unit. Fortunately, however, they end up liberating an important French town and the locals just adore Hargrove and his men. This portion of the film is enjoyable and sweet. Funny? No.The rest of the film consists of many instances where Hargrove gets into trouble or nearly gets himself killed or breaks a sweet girl's heart for no good reason. Most of these situations revolve around the screw-up Mulvehill (Keenan Wynn) and you wonder why Hargrove or anyone would be his pal. None of these situations are funny and it gets old and boring very quickly. No...it becomes tedious.

"If wolves are men who chase girls, and you aren't a wolf, then girls must chase you" quips Jean Porter, playing a very flirtatious French girl trying to get somewhere with a very reluctant Robert Walker, playing a US corporal-private taking part in the post-D Day liberation of France. The strikingly cute and winsome Ms Porter is more than enough to turn on any red-blooded man, but Walker explains that he doesn't want to compromise his relationship with his girl back home. Nonetheless, he eventually melts to a degree, esp. when it is in the interest of the US Army to have a good relationship with her father, the mayor of the local town....The first half of the film is definitely more fun than the more serious rather pointless second half. Unfortunately, Walker's on again, off again, relationship with Ms. Porter's character has an ugly conclusion, at odds with the general comic tone of the rest of the story. Robert Walker may remind you in looks of the later James Dean. He also tended to play troubled men, and was in fact very troubled in his private life after first wife Jennifer Jones left him for another man. Like Dean, he died quite young. Despite her charm and looks and introduction to Hollywood films at a very young age, Ms. Porter never achieved first rate stardom, although she has thus far outlived her costar by 60 years.

This is part two of the WW2 adventures of Private Hargrove. As you saw in the first movie (See Here, Private Hargrove) our hero is a somewhat hapless, but caring, person. Here he has survived boot camp and has made it to Europe as a corporal. He has his good days (he is a corporal) and his not so good days (he is a private). This is a light comedy that gives you a chance to relax and enjoy yourself. The two movies go well together but you should see the other one first to set the tone for this one. 7/10