Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)

Excellent adaptation.

As Good As It Gets

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Feeling under-appreciated at work and at home, mild-mannered Mr. Winkle (Edward G. Robinson) quits his job out of the blue and informs his domineering wife (Ruth Warrick) that he's going into business as "Mr. Fix-It" with the young Ted Donaldson, a pre-teen from the neighborhood who looks up to Robinson with great awe. All of a sudden, through an obvious government error, Robinson is sent a draft notice, and when he appears, much to his chagrin, he's actually chosen for active duty while other young bucks are sent home, deemed unfit for military service. Wife Warrick has already put him in the doghouse for the unsightly fix-it shop and when he doesn't come home, she's fit to be tied even more, while young Donaldson is stricken with grief.Robinson's basic training is pretty predictable as he sees the difference between himself and the other recruits, but his main goal is to get a job where his talents can truly be utilized. Of course, his banking background gets him a job doing typical bookkeeping, and of course, that's the last thing he wants to do. An amusing sequence has him confronting, rather reluctantly but persistently, his sergeant at a dance, of his desire for another position, and this gives the impression that he's looking for a fight. Another amusing moment has Robinson being chosen to approach a group of young women at a table where he asks them out. He proves he's not as wimpy as they think he is, and in fact, it's obvious that the young women think he's charming and cute, if not a romantic match.This being World War II, you can't go through all this and not have some message to express, and while this is as far from Frank Capra land as you can get, Robinson ends up a surprising hero which brings people around who previously had ignored his presence. In fact, when his boss in the very first scene hears Robinson tell him that he's quitting, he basically tells Eddie to go back to work and stop wasting his time. It's nice to see Robinson in a role far from his gangster image. He's closer here to his milquetoast clerk character in "The Whole Town's Talking" as he takes on a different persona when his meddle is tested. Warrick, a middle-class version here of her "All My Children" matron, is very pretty, but film never served her well, making her appear to be older than she was. Donaldson is Robinson's reminder of why he is going off to war, that the future must be fought for if there is to be a future and if there are going to be future generations. That message, and Warrick's realization that she needs to appreciate her husband more than she has, makes this light-hearted comedy well worth seeing.

It seems like everyone wants a piece of Wilbert Winkle!Edward G. Robinson & Ruth Warrick were great in "Mr. Winkle Goes to War" (1944). A middle aged, hen-pecked man finds he's been drafted by Uncle Sam. He's 'In the Army Now'...What happens next? Well, don't look at the possibles or impossibles. (What? At his age he actually made it into & through through boot camp? Then overseas?) Just watch & enjoy the acting style of Edward G. Robinson as he portrayed the mild-mannered bank clerk, Wilbert Winkle, who wants to be 'Mr.Fix-it'. Ruth Warrick is perfect as Amy the wife who doesn't know or understand her husband very well until she and Barry have a chat. Then Private Winkle returns home after serving his country and gently refuses to be pushed around.Young Ted Donaldson plays Barry, right-hand boy to his good friend Mr. Winkle.Jack Pettigrew (as Bob Haymes), Richard Lane (as Sgt. 'Alphabet' Czeidrowski) and Robert Armstrong (as Joe Tinker) are definitely believable as our hero's army chums.It's my 3rd viewing. It's a mixture of a funny and yet dramatic war movie.

Okay, so it's schmaltzy...and a bit preachy at times. But for what it is, a pro-war propaganda piece, Mr. Winkle Goes to War is a great few hours of warm-hearted (if you can call anything to do with war warm-hearted) sentiment. More importantly, if you value acting at all, it is a wonderful opportunity to see a master, Edward G. Robinson. To see "Little Caesar" in a role (much more like his true-life personna from what I've read) so drastically different yet done with such wonderful simplicity and finesse, is an acting class in itself. After only a few short minutes you are accepting of EGR as the antithesis of what he was in other films as well as the fantasy and far-fetched elements of this one. His supporting actors are on the schmaltzy side (which is a surprise coming from Ruth Warrick). But the fact that Robinson can pull the film off anyway is another credit to his acting.There are also a few interesting things to look for. As someone connected to the military now, I noticed in the induction oath that what is now an oath to protect the US "from all enemies foreign and domestic" was then "from all enemies whatsoever." Apparently Joe McCarthy in the 50s had some effect. Also, it was interesting in the storytelling that one person, a friend of Mr. Winkle's, wants to "kill a jap (with my bear hands" gets to do just that, but immediately shows remorse, and is gunned down. Which, frankly, is to the good since you don't want to think of this bloodthirsty so-and-so as a friend of Mr. Winkle (he gives the excuse that it's because his brother was killed by the Japanese).All in all, it'sa great film and should be seen by anyone. But it's a must-see for any Edward G. Robinson fan. And if you aren't one now, you will be after seeing this and any other of his films.

I'll watch any movie Edward G. Robinson did and i think he's a better actor than James Cagney. This one casts him as a guy who is always being told what to do and in the first scene of the movie he walks up to the manager of the bank and tells him he wants to quit, to everyone's surprise. His wife hates this idea and Robinson wants to run a business just fixing things. He then gets a letter telling him that he is drafted. He doesn't think he will be because he's 44 years old and out of shape. To his surprise and everyone else's, he is drafted. During basic training, they pull him out to have a desk job. Robinson doesn't like it and wants to be put back and be able to work as mechanic. He is sent overseas and is very close to the fighting. I've never really heard much about this movie and i didn't even see Robert Mitchum in this movie.