When Willie Comes Marching Home

When Willie Comes Marching Home

His story is taken from Government films ... because they didn't want it !

NR 1950 · 82 min · ★ 6.9 · Comedy, War

When Willie leaves home to join the war effort he is all ready to become a hero, but he is only frustrated when his posting ends up to be in his home town, and he is recruited into training, keeping him from the action. However, when he finds himself accidently behind enemy lines he unexpectedly becomes a hero after all.

Directed by John Ford · Written by Mary Loos

Your Rating

Cast

Dan Dailey William 'Bill' Kluggs
Corinne Calvet Yvonne Le Tete
Colleen Townsend Marjorie 'Marge' Fettles
William Demarest Herman Kluggs
Jimmy Lydon Charles 'Charlie' Fettles
Lloyd Corrigan Major Adams
Evelyn Varden Gertrude Kluggs
Whit Bissell Lt. M.J. Hanley - Psychiatrist (uncredited)
Vera Miles Laughing Sergeant's Date (uncredited)
Luis Alberni Barman (uncredited)
Gregg Barton Colonel (uncredited)
George Blagoi German Officer (uncredited)

Make it a double feature

3h 31m together

When Willie Comes Marching Home

The Quiet Man

Both from John Ford.

More from John FordSee all →

Unforgiven

Unforgiven · 1992

William Munny is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance · 1962

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.

The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath · 1940

The Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.

The Searchers

The Searchers · 1956

As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.

Stagecoach

Stagecoach · 1939

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.

My Darling Clementine

My Darling Clementine · 1946

My Darling Clementine

Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.

The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man · 1952

MovieRomanceComedy

An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict.

How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley · 1941

How Green Was My Valley

Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.

The Alamo

The Alamo · 1960

MovieWarAdventure

The legendary true story of a small band of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.

Mister Roberts

Mister Roberts · 1955

MovieComedyDrama

Mr. Roberts is a Navy officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a non-commissioned ship run by the bullying Captain Morton.

Fort Apache

Fort Apache · 1948

Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

Screen Director's Playhouse

Screen Director's Playhouse · 1955

Screen Director's Playhouse

SeriesComedyDrama

Presented by Eastman Kodak, this show was a series of original scripts directed by acclaimed directors and featuring well-known performers. The stories ranged from musicals to comedies and dramas.

How the West Was Won

How the West Was Won · 1962

How the West Was Won

The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.

The Horse Soldiers

The Horse Soldiers · 1959

The Horse Soldiers

MovieWesternWar

A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail supply center. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon · 1949

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

MovieDramaWestern

On the eve of retirement, Captain Nathan Brittles takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.

The Informer

The Informer · 1935

MovieCrimeDrama

Gypo Nolan is a former Irish Republican Army man who drowns his sorrows in the bottle. He's desperate to escape his bleak Dublin life and start over in America with his girlfriend. So when British authorities advertise a reward for information about his best friend, current IRA member Frankie, Gypo cooperates. Now Gypo can buy two tickets on a boat bound for the States, but can he escape the overwhelming guilt he feels for betraying his buddy?

More Like This

Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City · 1945

Rome, Open City

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

Chocolat

Chocolat · 2000

MovieComedyDrama

In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.

Everything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated · 2005

Everything Is Illuminated

MovieComedyDrama

A young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II—in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

To Be or Not to Be

To Be or Not to Be · 1942

To Be or Not to Be

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners · 2000

Italian for Beginners

MovieComedyDrama

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

Adam Resurrected

Adam Resurrected · 2008

Adam Resurrected

After again attempting to commit murder, a Jewish man with a mysterious past and extraordinary intelligence, charisma, and body control returns to an insane asylum, where he makes a startling discovery.

Head in the Clouds

Head in the Clouds · 2004

Head in the Clouds

MovieDramaRomance

Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.

When Trumpets Fade

When Trumpets Fade · 1998

When Trumpets Fade

In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.

Dead Snow

Dead Snow · 2009

MovieHorrorComedy

Eight medical students on a ski trip to Norway discover that Hitler's horrors live on when they come face to face with a battalion of zombie Nazi soldiers intent on devouring anyone unfortunate enough to wander into the remote mountains where they were once sent to die.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas · 2008

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Saints and Soldiers

Saints and Soldiers · 2003

Saints and Soldiers

Five American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.

Escape to Victory

Escape to Victory · 1981

Escape to Victory

A group of POWs in a German prison camp during World War II play the German National Soccer Team in this powerful film depicting the role of prisoners during wartime.

Come and See

Come and See · 1985

The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Flyora into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Flyora finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter