Military men seemed to have some sort of great adoration for Donna Reed in this kind of movie. It occurs to me that this was made possible because of Robert Walker's performance as Marion Hargrove. Think about how good he is in this role, to be so convincing that real-life soldiers can identify with him to the point they believe his girl in the movie might be their girl, too.But the legacy of the film and its lasting impact comes from the experiences of Hargrove, a war correspondent known for his humorous essays. The essays became the basis for a book which became the basis for this film. And it did so well at the box office that MGM commissioned a sequel which again starred Mr. Walker, though Miss Reed was not in it.The real-life Marion Hargrove went on to write screenplays and television scripts. He wrote many westerns and episodes of 'The Waltons' which in its later seasons depicts the conflicts of World War II, which Mr. Hargrove experienced first-hand.

Criticized for bad reporting, young Robert Walker (as Marion Hargrove) saves himself from getting fired (yet again) by receiving his draft letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Off to basic training in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Mr. Walker meets manipulative Private Keenan Wynn (as Mulvehill) and gullible Private George Offerman Jr. (as Orrin Esty) en route. They will become fast friends, with Mr. Wynn eventually getting Walker and himself cushy office transfers. However, when their old platoon gets orders to join the fighting forces, patriotic Walker and Wynn want in on the action. The good news is Walker's furloughs include quality kissing time with pretty Donna Reed (as Carol Halliday). The bad news is he has to scrub clean a lot of garbage cans. Walker is endearing enough to make cameo-appearing Robert Benchley, as Ms. Reed's veteran father, seem more annoying than funny.***** See Here, Private Hargrove (3/18/44) Wesley Ruggles ~ Robert Walker, Keenan Wynn, Donna Reed, George Offerman Jr.

It's sad but true--never look back at a film you enjoyed years ago and found a fun-filled comedy about service duty. I just watched SEE HERE, PRIVATE HARGROVE and discovered that it's a dud, without a single moment of originality in its weakly plotted and rambling "comedy," a farce that was probably seen as "original" when first released.ROBERT WALKER is genial enough in a boyish kind of way, KEENAN WYNN does fine as a slick con man type, DONNA REED is as wholesome as they come in a girl next door sort of way, and DOUGLAS FOWLEY and CHILL WILLS know how to bark orders in standard service fashion. But the material is so weak, not even ROBERT BENCHLEY (as Donna's chatterbox father) can relieve the monotony. All of the situations have been done before in much wittier ways.Walker is the bumbling G.I. who has a knack for getting himself in trouble with authority figures. None of the experiences he has in the Army are worth writing a book about, and yet that's exactly what he does (and did, in real life). Hopefully, the book was a lot better than the script derived from it.After this weak service comedy, I'm sure Walker wanted roles with more depth to prove himself a capable actor. Fortunately for him, better scripts did eventually come his way.

This is the third time I have seen Robert Walker snr. playing a corporal in his film roles.In chronological order first was this film (1943), albeit he was only "promoted" for one day; second in "Since You Went Away"(1944) and third in "The Clock"(1945).He stated that his challenge was to play the real life role of Marion Hargrove "appealing without resorting to buffoonery".The Producer had assembled an experienced support cast including Ray Collins, Keenan Wynn, Robert Benchley, Chill Wills and Donna Reed his love interest in the film with "more purity than passion".He admitted to a twinge of guilt (even though he was only acting) when he had to kiss her on screen since he was still married at the time to Jennifer Jones,his beloved "Phyl" (real name Phylis Isley/Walker.) I had never seen this film on mainstream terrestial analogue UK TV networks, neither had I seen it screened on our version of TCM nor other classic TV movie digital channels nor has it been made commercially available to my knowledge either as a DVD or VHS video.This is probably because the owners of the film rights considered it would not have sufficient commercial appeal.Nevertheless I tracked it down to a rare American video dealer on the internet and my son bought it for me as a Christmas present, since he knows how I love classic 1940s films.The reason I am interested in Robert Walker snr. is that he was married for five years to Jennifer Jones (whom I have been a fan of for years having collected all her films on video/DVD).I then spread my interest to other actors associated with her.I still think however that "Strangers on a Train" (1950) is Robert Walker's best film."See Here Private Hargrove" is an autobiographical innocuous comedy by Marion Hargrove (who wrote the best selling book) and who is played by Robert Walker.He starts the comedy as an ineffective newspaper reporter who has talent for writing but just cannot follow through effectively.He is then willingly packed off by his editor when he (Hargrove) is called up to join "Uncle Sam" at a North Carolina army training camp during WWII.He is assigned to training on artillery but spends most of his time there cleaning dustbins (due to a great inability to keep to the disciplined army rules).As a punishment he suffers what Americans call "KP".Does this mean "kitchen punishment"?For one glorious day he is promoted to corporal for an exercise where the blue team have to out-manoeuvre the red team but despite showing individual initiative he only succeeds in leading his company into the wrong team's HQ, because he still cannot follow through effectively.His best friend at the camp (played by real life friend Keenan Wynn whom he met earlier in New York during his first professional radio days), tries to cheat him at every opportunity taking advantage of his talent for writing and gets him to sign a fraudulent assignation of all his present and future royalties in the hope that some day he will be a famous best selling author.Due to Marion's talent for writing, they "wangle" a soft option in the camp's public relations department but after a while they yearn to be back again with their buddies in the artillery.They only just manage to do this before the brigade is moved out to go on active duty.The plot is very gentle, has simple humour, is patriotic and uncontroversial and presumably was seen by the "brass" in 1943 as approved relaxing viewing for soldiers.To young 21st century eyes the plot seems naive but it was Robert Walker's first leading role at a time when it was important to keep up the public's morale in the middle of the war.His then wife, Jennifer Jones was filming her first leading role at 20th Century Fox playing Bernadette Soubirous in "Song of Bernadette"(1943) for which of course she won the "Oscar" for best actress at the 1944 awards ceremony.I understand there is a sequel to this film "What Next Private Hargrove" (1945) again starring Robert Walker in the title role with his friend Keenan Wynn.It would be interesting to see the user comments for the latter film on IMDb.com and how the plot was subsequently developed.