When six WWII marines can't pay a cafe for their beer, morose civilian Woodrow Truesmith picks up their tab. Thanking him, they learn that his medical discharge from the marines a year ago crushed his lifelong dream of living up to his father, a WWI recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, killed the day Woodrow was born. Too ashamed to face his mother and his hometown after the sendoff they gave him, he has been staying away and letting them think he was accepted. Over his protestations, the six concoct a plan to rescue his reputation. They phone his mother. Their story is that he just got back from Guadalcanal with them, having been wounded and honorably discharged. He'll be home tomorrow.
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They expect a quiet homecoming. Instead, they step off the train to cheers and banners and marching bands. Woodrow is given the keys to the city, and a welcoming speech from a little girl with flowers. There is talk of building a monument to both Truesmith heroes. When he is pressed to run for mayor, his admissions of unworthiness are mistaken for noble modesty. It doesn't help that Sarge, determined to see "Hinky Dink" Truesmith's boy revered, keeps laying on the phony praise, even claiming that Woodrow saved his life amid a hail of Japanese bullets. Overwhelmed, Woodrow tries to trump the lies with another lie, an excuse for him to leave town: He pretends the marines are calling him back.
Meanwhile, Libby, the girlfriend he told from "overseas" to forget about him, has been unable to admit she is engaged to the mayor's son. When she finally does, he admits the whole sordid story to her. He tells her that he loves her too, but that she is better off without him. When he gets up to make his "campagin speech" to the town, he is unaware that the nervous mayor's office has contacted a marine base in San Diego and learned the truth, and that the mayor is about to spring it on the town. Is there any way Woodrow can spare his mother from the shame?
The review of this Movie prepared by vjm
