hilarious and overlooked

"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

I don't think that this is a film with anything resembling a cynical outlook. There's a lot poking fun, but everybody comes out okay in the end. But you score it a 9, that's still a very high score!

There's plenty of satire in this picture - and pointed at the Marines in this story, like the war souvenir schtick in the restaurant at the beginning of the film, or Heppelfinger's admission that, in describing himself as a hero, that he wouldn't want to have to tell anyone what he'd done to deserve the title as, after twenty-five years of recounting his heroics, he'd told his stories so many different ways, he'd forgotten which was which. The willingness and eagerness of the town to gobble up Woodrow as the hero that they could pin their hopes upon was also rather a sharp jab at humanity. Sturges does a marvelous job of making big fun of things, but I can't really think of anything that is full of the jaundiced viewpoint of the hard-bitten cynic.

Woodrow is sent off the war with the hero's fanfare and ceremony, and he is promptly kicked out of the service for his hay fever. He can't face the burden of his shame and humiliation by showing his face back home in town and he would hate for any of it to reflect poorly on his mother. So, he lives a lie, miserably, in exile, wishing he could go home, hating his predicament when some would-be brothers in arms come to his rescue, albeit with consequences.

The Marines got him home, they eventually restored him to respectability in his home town, so much so, that the town leaders come and beg him to reconsider and run for mayor! Sarge and company practically saved his life! Why wouldn't he be humbled and a little blown away and even overcome by a bit of awe and emotion, all over again, for his father's branch of the service, the United States Marine Corps after all that? He knew they could do almost anything but he never knew they could do that. And, as Bugsy points out, he had no idea of all they could do. Why wouldn't he say the motto again as he watches them ride into the sunset, after having made a heroic rescue of him at home, as they head back to Pacific and more hellish and gruesome combat? I think it all works very nicely. Yes, it's a feel-good happy ending and it's not like this is the only happy ending in a Sturges story, but I think it's just the right mix of some shrewd and wise satire with a story that ends well and that would have gone over well with its audience when it was first released. And it still holds up well for me.