What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945)

A Masterpiece!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

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.

This film needed to either be more of a drama, with a serious goal to achieve--say winning some battle with a key element executed by the two stars, or focus more on comedy and not have 30-45% of the film be essentially dramatic.Hargrove seems to keep being promoted to corporal and busted back to private, without there really appearing to be much reason for either. He keeps getting fouled up by his companion, the scheming Keenan Wynn, who doesn't have any wild, Sgt. Bilko-like schemes, but simply figures out lies to keep himself and Hargrove out of trouble. Except he keeps getting caught and thus, into more trouble.The sarge doesn't really like the two stars, but keeps depending on them because they can do the job better than anyone else available.I think I chuckled out loud two or three times when watching this last night. The "mission" of the soldiers kept getting changed, making this a picture without any real point to it.By the last half hour, I couldn't wait for it to end because it had gotten so boring.The film needed some funny things happening to the stars, but didn't get them. The drama was never much. At one point, Hargrove gets captured by Germans, but about two minutes after this happens, his buddies get the chance to surprise the Germans and he is freed.To me, it was like Jerry and George trying to write their first script on Seinfeld. They had no ideas for a real plot, so they think of different short things that could happen to the characters. The incidents are not related and there is no point to any of this. That's the way I felt about both this Hargrove movie and the earlier one that I saw months ago on TCM.

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