Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

(San Fransisco and Oak Ridge California; 1943ish)
IMDb

War time comedy by Preston Struges showcases the directors unique ability to use star Eddie Bracken to full effect. Bracken pays Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, the son of a (late) medal of honor winning World War One hero, who is discharged from the Marines after a month of basic training because of chronic hay fever. Embarrassed by being unable to live up to the lofty expectations set by his father, Truesmith goes to work for a factor producing war supplies, and has a friend in the field send letters to his mother in which he claims to be serving overseas. After a year of this Woodrow gets lonesome for home, and decides to head back to his home town and face the truth. The night before he is to leave from San Fransisco he runs into six Marines returning from Guadalcanal. He buys them beers and explains his plight, and before long his new friends have taken it upon themselves to pass the young man off as a fellow solder returning home from the front.

High expectations at home, and a series of mistaken communications, leads the citizens of Oak Ridge to believe that their Woodrow is a bonafied war hero, a statues which the six Marines (lead by Sturges regular William Demarest) do their best to maintain. Before long 'Corporeal Truesmith' has been drafted to run for mayor against the father of his pre-war girlfriends fiancee. As is typical for a Sturges movie the complications keep mounting, and poor Bracken gets increasingly nervous as the hole he's in grows deeper and deeper. Of course the director has a Capra-like hart and things are bound turn out well, which is probably what makes watching the good mans suffering bearable (that and its funny). A wonderful World War Two home front film, unlike any other.