Monsieur Winkle s'en va-t-en guerre

I'll watch any movie Edward G. Robinson did and i think he's a better actor than James Cagney. This one casts him as a guy who is always being told what to do and in the first scene of the movie he walks up to the manager of the bank and tells him he wants to quit, to everyone's surprise. His wife hates this idea and Robinson wants to run a business just fixing things. He then gets a letter telling him that he is drafted. He doesn't think he will be because he's 44 years old and out of shape. To his surprise and everyone else's, he is drafted. During basic training, they pull him out to have a desk job. Robinson doesn't like it and wants to be put back and be able to work as mechanic. He is sent overseas and is very close to the fighting. I've never really heard much about this movie and i didn't even see Robert Mitchum in this movie.

An earnest attempt to boost morale during the Second World War, this 1944 trifle stars Edward G. Robinson as a modest banker who dreams of owning a fix-it shop. When the aging dreamer (Robinson playing 44 but looking every bit of his 51 years) is unexpectedly drafted, he sticks by his guns so to speak, and becomes a war hero. His sergeant, played by Richard Lane, is named Czeidrowski. Never does the film mention that he is Polish, but he turns out to be a tough but compassionate character, an all-American whom the boys in his unit call Sergeant Alphabet because his name is "pert near longer than the whole alphabet." Of course it isn't, and the spelling is odd even for Polish. Nevertheless, his character is a small nod to the fact that some 900,000 Poles were in the Armed Forces in World War II. Favorite moment: When Robinson, Lane, and two pals sing "Sweet Genevieve" a cappella.

This picked on banker goes and get's drafted. He is always taking pills for some ailment, but once he goes into training with the Army, he's a changed man. The movie moves along very nicely. You see the change in him....slowly but at the right moments he emerges a stronger person and a hero. I'm sorry to say that this movie has been hidden and should be brought back. Very inspirational to say the least. Mr. Winkle is an excellent movie and should be viewed by all. His wife played by Ruth Warick, who recently passed away, plays a sympathetic wife and very loving. She feels her husband's pain while at the bank. She is extremely proud when he returns victorious and a changed man. Must see!

Edward G Robinson is wonderful as Wilbert Winkle. A meek and short man that has several problems. A personality that is timid. An office job in a bank that curtails any creativity. A wife that is not very supportive. No children. A man so timid that he actually asks his boss if he can quit. A man that just exists and never makes a difference in this world. Could that change?

Winkle decides to make a difference. He quits despite his boss. He wants to be "mr. fixer-upper." He has a boy by the name of Barry that he wants to help. A boy that is from a home-for-boys. Barry becomes the partner in the new business. Yes, life will be a challenge. Little did Winkle know just what was ahead in his new life.

World War II needs men. Strong, tall, able men even short, old and timid men. Poor Winkle, his business and Barry will have to wait. His wife will have to wait, but then his wife didn't have much time for him anyway. Men die, men are wounded, would this happen to Winkle?

A fine acting vehicle for Robinson to display that he can act. A film that you will enjoy!

No one could play both snarling gangster and mild-mannered, henpecked husband as adeptly as Edward .G Robinson, and in this likeable war movie he's the latter. He's a bank clerk who gets the chance to realise his dream of working with his hands when he's inducted into the army during WWII, and becomes a war hero in the process. The material is slight, but Robinson carries it off with style.