See Here, Private Hargrove (1944)

Let's be realistic.

Absolutely Brilliant!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

If you loved the movie Stripes, and who didn't, this is basically the World War II version and dare I say made me laugh out loud more. I will agree with some of the other reviewers that a bit of the movie is a little dated but come on folks it's 68 years old.Robert Walker as the guy who just couldn't seem to follow Army protocol no matter how hard he tried, until he meets Donna Reeds' character was both funny and sweet. Both gave a great performance as did the supporting cast, and the movie was actually a big hit with G.I.s serving overseas when the movie was released. If you get the chance to check this out I don't think you'll be disappointed, It actually is laugh out loud funny.

More than 5,000,000 men entered the armed services in World War II and movies like See Here, Private Hargroves was an attempt to assure the folks back home and incoming draftees that Army life could be swell. You may have to scrub a few garbage cans but you will make buddies that will last a lifetime and get a chance to meet and fall in love with a beauty like Donna Reed. Even a screw-up like Hargrove eventually becomes a member of the best gunnery team in the battery and earn the respect of the drill instructors that once tormented him. One character even tells Hargrove that he will remember his Army service as the best times of his life.

It's sad but true--never look back at a film you enjoyed years ago and found a fun-filled comedy about service duty. I just watched SEE HERE, PRIVATE HARGROVE and discovered that it's a dud, without a single moment of originality in its weakly plotted and rambling "comedy," a farce that was probably seen as "original" when first released.ROBERT WALKER is genial enough in a boyish kind of way, KEENAN WYNN does fine as a slick con man type, DONNA REED is as wholesome as they come in a girl next door sort of way, and DOUGLAS FOWLEY and CHILL WILLS know how to bark orders in standard service fashion. But the material is so weak, not even ROBERT BENCHLEY (as Donna's chatterbox father) can relieve the monotony. All of the situations have been done before in much wittier ways.Walker is the bumbling G.I. who has a knack for getting himself in trouble with authority figures. None of the experiences he has in the Army are worth writing a book about, and yet that's exactly what he does (and did, in real life). Hopefully, the book was a lot better than the script derived from it.After this weak service comedy, I'm sure Walker wanted roles with more depth to prove himself a capable actor. Fortunately for him, better scripts did eventually come his way.

Robert Walker plays an extremely skinny private in the United States Army during the midst of World War Two. He scrubs lots of garbage cans and gets to woo a lovely Donna Reed. As an "in the army" genre movie the film has more of a peace time vibe to it than one that was produced during the biggest war of the twentieth century. It would be hard to imagine Germany or Japan cranking out cinematic fluff like this in 1944. It perhaps reflects the fact that the mainland of the United States was not suffering the effects of total war like other countries. The lighthearted tone also might indicate the underlying confidence the country was feeling about ultimately winning the war at the time.