What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945)

There is a scene towards the end of this film where the boys are travelling through Paris that rather sums the whole thing up. They are no more in Paris France than Paris Texas, and the filmed background is as obvious as most of the rest of this standard wartime comedy. It’s a sequel to the initial escapades of “Hargrove” (Robert Walker) from last year who has now been given, on what seems like a rotating basis, a couple of stripes and together with his pal “Mulverhill” (Keenan Wynn) gets into a multitude of scrapes as the US Army traverses the French countryside. They have a get rich quick scheme for just about everything, but their ordinarily harmonised rapport starts to struggle when one starts to make a few bucks at the expense of his pal! Chill Wills adds a little gravitas to this pretty chaotic military operation as their tolerant, but frequently frustrated, sergeant and there’s a tiny bit of glamour sparingly provided by the shockingly wooden Jean Porter but for the most part this is one of those procedural feel-good features that relies on the scenario and a hint of slapstick to get it through. Walker and Wynn do gel quite well but they are just going through the motions of something we have seen plenty of times before. Doubtless it cheered the war-weary audience at the drive-in in 1945, but it’s not a film you will ever remember watching.