Kilroy Was Here

With a title of KILROY WAS HERE you're instantly struck by the name of the movie. We've all heard it along with the instantly recognisable drawing of a bald man peeking over a wall. Apparently this meme took off during the Second World War but searching on Wikipedia it seems to have its origins before the war. That said according to wiki it did come in to popular during the war

The premise of this movie is that it features a character called John J Kilroy who after leaving the army tries to get a college education and uses somewhat underhand means in order to get this education via his legendary name. It's actually a good premise and contains a couple of subplots that should make it an even better film. One is a potential romance with a female student called Connie has her own agenda for wanting to know Kilroy. The second aspect is that the posh educated middle class students who were exempt from the draft look down upon Kilroy due to a combination of social class and jealousy that they never fought in the war

Do you agree this sounds like a very good idea for a movie, especially one that was made just after the war ? I think so too. Sadly however the production team seem to miss all the potential they had at their disposal and the film just seems to drift about like a rudderless boat. Jackie Cooper puts in a likable performance and it's not difficult to pick a side. The opposition - privileged students - aren't very well drawn however and make little impact due to both the casting and writing and you're left feeling KILROY WAS HERE should be miles better than it actually is