An Army colonel retires to his childhood home in 1940 Georgia in this 20th Century Fox film. Released in January 1946, this is one of the first films made after World War II. The war is just beginning in this story that's based on a novel by Berry Fleming. The story is about the colonel, Will Seaborn Effingham, played by Charles Coburn. It's seen through the eyes of his second cousin once removed, Albert Marbury (played by William Eythe). The setting is the fictitious town of Fredericksville, Georgia. Cousin Willie (the colonel) asks Albert about Fredericksville, and Albert says it's "just like any of a hundred towns in Georgia." The colonel asks, "What's the population now?" Albert says, "Oh, about 30,000." The colonel asks, "How many voted in the last election?" Albert answers, "Oh, four or five thousand, I'd say." The colonel then says, "You mean 25,000 took no part in the action?" I don't know if that was supposed to be part of the comedy – implying that the entire population of the town was of voting age. If not, it was a gaffe on the part of the screenplay. The latter may be the case, because the script for this film is weak. It seems disjointed and not well tied together. The comedy is very light, and it's even amateurish in places. In three scenes where Albert notices Ella Sue's legs (Joan Bennett), the film has a weird and clumsy whistle sound over. The colonel takes on the local pols when he writes a column for one of the two town's newspapers. Albert happens to work for it as a reporter. Ella Sue is the society editor. This could have been a very good film with a tight script and some crisp, fresh dialog and humor. But, it's a nap time film, mostly. The only reason to watch it is for Charles Coburn and Thurston Hall – one of the best early Hollywood character actors of bombast. He's the bloated mayor of the town. They are the only two who have worthwhile roles and seem to give them some effort.Eythe's Albert is mostly droll throughout. His part may have been written that way in the book. Whether or not, it comes across that way. He just comes to life in a closing scene. Joan Bennett's Ella Sue was well below her talent and abilities, and the rest of the cast are forgettable. See the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page on the movie for the few funny lines. My favorite line in the film is is one by the colonel: "A community's history is its family tree."

Coburn is Col. Effingham, recently retired from the U.S. Army and returned to the home town he left as a youth. It's 1940 and things have changed for the imperious old battle horse. He finds the "Home Folks Party", the mayor and his relatives, control everything in Fredericksville. They're corrupt and Coburn wangles a column in the local newspaper, stirring people to revolt against the changes introduced by the Home Folks Party. Why, they want to change the name of Confederate Memorial Square to Toolen Square, after some political bigwig.Let us make this as clear as the movie makes it. Charles Coburn is fighting to bring a halt to social change and bring back the venerable Confederate values of General Lee. They survived Sherman's march and they kicked out Reconstruction. Working women are scoffed at. The African-American "orderly" is given orders and happily marches around to a drum beat, when he's not being humiliated in swordplay with the colonel. (He's happy, though, except when cowering in fear.) It's kind of instructive though. The Home Folks party agrees to keep the name of Confederate Memorial Square and even beautify it with trees. At the same time they'll replace the 180 year old court house with a new one, meaning a work contract for the mayor's brother-in-law. We see the same dynamic at work in today's Congress. They attach "riders" to important legislation. The bill winds up looking like this: "We agree to continue funding the United States Armed Forces. PS: We will change the name of Fort Hancock to Fort Armistad." The battles continue between Coburn and his increasing number of supporters on the one hand, and the Home Folks party and its mayor on the other. The immortal Bess Flowers appears as a party guest. As the tale grows more serious, you'll find yourself rooting for Colonel Effingham and his "troops". The ending is a Capraesque caper.In the end, despite all the echoes of the Confederacy, I don't really see this as a message that the South was, and should continue to be, a paragon of old-fashioned virtue. The story could have taken place anywhere that had a bit of regional identity. Instead of the Confederate Memorial Square, it might have been the statue of the Minuteman at Concord. Instead of a community fight over tearing down the old courthouse, it might have been a disagreement over getting rid of Plymouth Rock and replacing it with a shopping mall owned by the mayor's brother-in-law.More important, it's an inoculation in 1940 for the coming war, just a taste of it, to get the adrenal medullas into shape. The narrator, a handsome young newspaper man, joins the Georgia National Guard and is introduced to a water-cooled Browning .30 caliber machine gun. There is a discussion about Fredericksville not being isolated from events in Europe, which are periodically alluded to. Colonel Effingham represents the practically, the adherence to tradition, and the élan of the military. He stirs things up. "Why did he have to come back here," moans the narrator, "when we were so peaceful and contented.""Colonel Effingham's Raid" was from a novel written by Georgian Barry Fleming and published in 1943. I imagine it was begun a year or two earlier, when the war had just begun or even maybe before Pearl Harbor, when isolationist sentiment was strong. Fleming was no retrograde pinhead. He'd been graduated from Harvard, spent some years in France, lived in New York, and his work was acclaimed by such respectable sources as the New York Times.

"Colonel Effingham's Raid" is one of the most unlikeable movies I've ever watched. Hard to find any redeemable qualities.A brief synopses, Colonel Effingham is a retired colonel who doesn't like the direction in which his small, Georgian city is heading. The politicians are crooked and don't understand the values that made the city great. So the Colonel takes action by starting a column in his nephew's newspaper.The column is extremely controversial, especially when the Colonel starts a campaign to preserve the 150 year old court house, which the politicians want to tear down and replace with a new, more modern court house.The movie's pacing was very slow, never caught my interest and no characters were even in the slightest bit sympathetic. The Colonel was a grouchy, arrogant, blow-hard who, while he may have been trying to fight against crooked politicians, went about it in the most obnoxious ways. Perhaps the most disturbing scene was at the end when the angry, but victorious, townspeople/mob try to topple the platform on which the mayor and counsel men are giving a speech.Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the movie was the romance between Colonel Effingham's nephew, Albert, and a female reporter, Ella.Throughout the movie, Albert makes snide comments about female reporters and the two, when they are not completely ignoring each other constantly bicker. They pretty much can't stand each other until one day, Albert and Ella are walking somewhere and the wind blows up her skirt and Albert catches sight of her legs and from then on he's smitten. They'll be arguing about something and then Ella will cross her legs and from the look on Albert's face, we are reminded that he is madly in love with her. Problem is, Ella has a boyfriend, Professor Bland. So Albert sets out to woo Ella by taking her out bowling and enlisting in the National Guard- neither grand gesture seems to impress Ella much, until Albert is called upon for active duty and on the eve of his departure he reveals to Ella his deep regards for her legs and instead of being repulsed and slapping him she giggles and says she didn't think he noticed! And of course they kiss, both of them forgetting about Professor Bland.A few questions for discussion: Why, when the newspaper editor is titling the picture of Colonel Effingham and his dog for the Colonel's newspaper column, does the editor insist that they say that the dog's name is "Rover" instead of it's real name, "Buck"? How is Rover a superior name to Buck?? Why does Professor Bland's name sound like a character out of a board game? And are we supposed to assume from his name that he has a really boring personality? And speaking of names, who else thinks that the Colonel's name sounds like a euphemistic swear word? At one point the city counsel presents two independent reports on the structure of the courthouse from two building inspectors, trying to prove that the building is unsound and must be torn down. Colonel Effingham insists that they use a completely objective inspector from a different city. Don't you think it's a little ridiculous of the Colonel to hire, as an objective party, a good friend of his?

Charles Coburn plays a lovable old veteran who returns to his hometown of Fredricksville, Georgia as World War II commences. There, he finds nephew William Eythe, who helps facilitate a job for his uncle on the town newspaper. Also on staff is society gal Joan Bennett. Mr. Coburn uses his newspaper column "On the Firing Line" to rally the townspeople - he wants to save an old town Courthouse from being torn down, and replaced. Can he rally the townspeople to save the monument from demolition? Although the Courthouse in danger is a Confederate Courthouse, there is no political agenda offered by the film - it's simply a story about weeding out political corruption, and preserving an old building. There is, however, a stereotypical servant (called "Orderly 98") who isn't too hard to take until his offensive fencing scene with Coburn. The "whistle" which accompanies close-ups of Ms. Bennett's legs is ridiculous. Don't expect authentic Georgia accents. A nice idea, and a competent cast, aren't enough to lift this "Colonel Effingham's Raid". *** Colonel Effingham's Raid (1/24/46) Irving Pichel ~ Charles Coburn, Joan Bennett, William Eythe, Thurston Hall