Plainly aimed at waverers during World War II, this is a strange credit for screenwriter Waldo Salt, blacklisted in 1951 before (much) later bouncing back with his Oscar-winning scripts for 'Midnight Cowboy' and the anti-Vietnam 'Coming Home'.
Considering the title, it takes Wilbert Winkle (a name that sounds remarkably similar to Wendell Willkie, one of the few Republican interventionists prior to Pearl Harbor) a surprisingly long time even to get posted to duty in the Pacific; and he actually pesters those in charge not to give him the desk job for which he's obviously best suited but on the front line.
When at the start he approaches his boss to tell them he's quitting his job, we assume he's doing so to join the army. But No, he's actually setting up his own shop, in the face of fierce opposition of his harpie of a wife, Ruth Warrick. Then his call-up papers arrive, and despite being obviously way too old and obviously physically unfit somehow gets through basic training with a very middle-aged looking unit including Robert Armstrong and Sergeant Richard Lane; whereupon almost by accident he lays waste with a mechanical digger to a whole platoon of machine-gun wielding Japs and returns a hero and to the arms of his now-proud wife.
Considering the title, it takes Wilbert Winkle (a name that sounds remarkably similar to Wendell Willkie, one of the few Republican interventionists prior to Pearl Harbor) a surprisingly long time even to get posted to duty in the Pacific; and he actually pesters those in charge not to give him the desk job for which he's obviously best suited but on the front line.
When at the start he approaches his boss to tell them he's quitting his job, we assume he's doing so to join the army. But No, he's actually setting up his own shop, in the face of fierce opposition of his harpie of a wife, Ruth Warrick. Then his call-up papers arrive, and despite being obviously way too old and obviously physically unfit somehow gets through basic training with a very middle-aged looking unit including Robert Armstrong and Sergeant Richard Lane; whereupon almost by accident he lays waste with a mechanical digger to a whole platoon of machine-gun wielding Japs and returns a hero and to the arms of his now-proud wife.