User Reviews

Reaching back for his character from The Whole Town's Talking, or at least one of them, Edward G. Robinson plays Wilbert Winkle who at 44 wants a change in life. He gets far more than he bargained for when he's drafted during World War II.

That actually happened. I had a great uncle who was 44 in 1942 and had served in the first World War. That made no difference, because along with my father who was 23 at the time, my great uncle like Wilbert Winkle found himself drafted, though fortunately he didn't get another trip overseas courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Winkle's a meek little clerk in a bank in what has proved to be a dead end job. He's decided to quit and turn a hobby into a business. He likes to work with his hands and opens up a fix it shop. That doesn't sit well with wife Ruth Warrick. In fact the only one who approves is a kid from a nearby group home, Ted Donaldson, who's devoted to Winkle.

Of course everything changes when Winkle of all people pulls a Sergeant York act out in the Pacific Theater. It's interesting to see how people treat him then.

Mr. Winkle Goes To War is a pleasant and whimsical film with a nice restrained performance by Edward G. Robinson. A far cry from Little Caesar indeed. His scenes with Ted Donaldson are quite poignant.

It's a film I'm sure could be remade today and maybe should.

Feeling under-appreciated at work and at home, mild-mannered Mr. Winkle (Edward G. Robinson) quits his job out of the blue and informs his domineering wife (Ruth Warrick) that he's going into business as "Mr. Fix-It" with the young Ted Donaldson, a pre-teen from the neighborhood who looks up to Robinson with great awe. All of a sudden, through an obvious government error, Robinson is sent a draft notice, and when he appears, much to his chagrin, he's actually chosen for active duty while other young bucks are sent home, deemed unfit for military service. Wife Warrick has already put him in the doghouse for the unsightly fix-it shop and when he doesn't come home, she's fit to be tied even more, while young Donaldson is stricken with grief.

Robinson's basic training is pretty predictable as he sees the difference between himself and the other recruits, but his main goal is to get a job where his talents can truly be utilized. Of course, his banking background gets him a job doing typical bookkeeping, and of course, that's the last thing he wants to do. An amusing sequence has him confronting, rather reluctantly but persistently, his sergeant at a dance, of his desire for another position, and this gives the impression that he's looking for a fight. Another amusing moment has Robinson being chosen to approach a group of young women at a table where he asks them out. He proves he's not as wimpy as they think he is, and in fact, it's obvious that the young women think he's charming and cute, if not a romantic match.

This being World War II, you can't go through all this and not have some message to express, and while this is as far from Frank Capra land as you can get, Robinson ends up a surprising hero which brings people around who previously had ignored his presence. In fact, when his boss in the very first scene hears Robinson tell him that he's quitting, he basically tells Eddie to go back to work and stop wasting his time. It's nice to see Robinson in a role far from his gangster image. He's closer here to his milquetoast clerk character in "The Whole Town's Talking" as he takes on a different persona when his meddle is tested. Warrick, a middle-class version here of her "All My Children" matron, is very pretty, but film never served her well, making her appear to be older than she was. Donaldson is Robinson's reminder of why he is going off to war, that the future must be fought for if there is to be a future and if there are going to be future generations. That message, and Warrick's realization that she needs to appreciate her husband more than she has, makes this light-hearted comedy well worth seeing.

It seems like everyone wants a piece of Wilbert Winkle!

Edward G. Robinson & Ruth Warrick were great in "Mr. Winkle Goes to War" (1944). A middle aged, hen-pecked man finds he's been drafted by Uncle Sam. He's 'In the Army Now'...What happens next? Well, don't look at the possibles or impossibles. (What? At his age he actually made it into & through through boot camp? Then overseas?) Just watch & enjoy the acting style of Edward G. Robinson as he portrayed the mild-mannered bank clerk, Wilbert Winkle, who wants to be 'Mr.Fix-it'.

Ruth Warrick is perfect as Amy the wife who doesn't know or understand her husband very well until she and Barry have a chat. Then Private Winkle returns home after serving his country and gently refuses to be pushed around.

Young Ted Donaldson plays Barry, right-hand boy to his good friend Mr. Winkle.

Jack Pettigrew (as Bob Haymes), Richard Lane (as Sgt. 'Alphabet' Czeidrowski) and Robert Armstrong (as Joe Tinker) are definitely believable as our hero's army chums.

It's my 3rd viewing. It's a mixture of a funny and yet dramatic war movie.

Okay, so it's schmaltzy...and a bit preachy at times. But for what it is, a pro-war propaganda piece, Mr. Winkle Goes to War is a great few hours of warm-hearted (if you can call anything to do with war warm-hearted) sentiment. More importantly, if you value acting at all, it is a wonderful opportunity to see a master, Edward G. Robinson. To see "Little Caesar" in a role (much more like his true-life personna from what I've read) so drastically different yet done with such wonderful simplicity and finesse, is an acting class in itself.

After only a few short minutes you are accepting of EGR as the antithesis of what he was in other films as well as the fantasy and far-fetched elements of this one. His supporting actors are on the schmaltzy side (which is a surprise coming from Ruth Warrick). But the fact that Robinson can pull the film off anyway is another credit to his acting.

There are also a few interesting things to look for. As someone connected to the military now, I noticed in the induction oath that what is now an oath to protect the US "from all enemies foreign and domestic" was then "from all enemies whatsoever." Apparently Joe McCarthy in the 50s had some effect. Also, it was interesting in the storytelling that one person, a friend of Mr. Winkle's, wants to "kill a jap (with my bear hands" gets to do just that, but immediately shows remorse, and is gunned down. Which, frankly, is to the good since you don't want to think of this bloodthirsty so-and-so as a friend of Mr. Winkle (he gives the excuse that it's because his brother was killed by the Japanese).

All in all, it'sa great film and should be seen by anyone. But it's a must-see for any Edward G. Robinson fan. And if you aren't one now, you will be after seeing this and any other of his films.

Have just seen this film for the second time and because of the characters, particularly that of Edward G Robinson, it remains a watchable film. It's a shame that he was not able to play a wider range of characters, particularly more comedic ones as he brings not just a warmth to the character but a comedic turn. He also seems to enjoy the role! Technically it's not the best but it doesn't set out to be a realistic docudrama. There were flaws in the film, e g when Mr Winkle drives the bulldozer over the enemy machine gunning his comrades, the 'enemy' are clearly very badly made dummies. I did not see Robert Mitcham despite twice running through the scenes with soldiers in, I did notice that Edward G's dress uniform was a much better fit and quality than any of the others, I guess being the star had its perks!

I caught this on TMC, had no idea what to expect. I like Robinson, and needless to say, was a great movie. Mr. Winkle was is a poor man whose wife picks on him and works a job he hates. He quits his job to work in his wood/medal shop in his garage. His wife says he needs to get his job back and the next day he's drafted. Being 44 years old he doesn't see himself lasting too long, but he soon finds his niche.

Finding someone's niche is what the Army's all about, even though training has changed in 60 years, the feeling to serve the country hasn't for many men.

Hard to classify this as a comedy, hard to say it's a drama. It's shorter than most movies, but it zips along. I await Hollywood to remake it.

Copyright 3 August 1944 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at Loew's Criterion: 2 August 1944. U.S. release: 3 August 1944. Australian release: 15 February 1945. 7,315 feet. 80 minutes.

U.K. release title: ARMS AND THE WOMAN.

SYNOPSIS: Wife objects to her husband cutting a gate in his backyard fence so that he can reach his shop on the other side. She insists that he walk around the whole block.

NOTES: Robert Mitchum is in this movie as one of Winkle's instructors I believe, but you'll certainly have to be mighty quick to catch him. I've seen the movie at least three times and I've never spotted him.

VIEWER'S GUIDE: With a nagging wife constantly browbeating her meek little good-Joe hubby, the kids will think they're right at home with this one. Suitable for all.

COMMENT: It's odd to find a luminary like Edward G. Robinson starring in a B-grader - especially in a B-grader like this one. It's the sort of movie that gives old black-and-white films a bad name. Despite its very middling entertainment value, it does have remarkable staying power. It enjoyed a successful theatrical release (in Australia it was in continuous circulation until the mid-1950s, when almost all Columbia's other wartime product had disappeared) and has been frequently broadcast on Oz TV - as recently as April, 2001.

Perhaps its homely theme, its little guy rejecting books and making good with his hands, is what appeals to many audiences. Certainly Wilbert Winkle is a character with which many people can identify - and he is portrayed with ease, skill and sympathy by Edward G. Robinson.

But everything else about Mr Winkle Goes To War is second-rate. The cornball script not only runs a predictable course, but that course has quite a few unbelievable holes, and the running takes far too long. True, the central idea is promising, but it's resolved in a typically small-budget way with the producer making a virtue out of the necessity of bypassing the expensive "Welcome Home" parade.

Yes, the action climax and the training scenes are reasonably lively, but all the trivial domestic guff between Robinson and his insipid partner Ruth Warrick, and all that sentimental tosh with Ted Donaldson's helpful orphan could stand considerable trimming. The dialogue is often slow and tedious and most of the players have a hard time with it, particularly Robert Armstrong, though Lane registers okay as the sergeant.

Technically, Mr Winkle is equally undistinguished. Green's direction has occasional spurts of energy, but is mostly slow and mercilessly routine. The music score is strictly Mickey Mouse, aggressively underlining every "comic" and "dramatic" development. Even the photography is so flat and unattractive that for just this once we wouldn't object to "color enhancement". At least that would give the whole movie a much-needed lift from the "B" doldrums.

I've never been much of a fan of Edward G in his more famous gangster roles, but here he goes against the tough-guy image and plays a quiet, hen-pecked husband who decides he must go his own way. He starts his own workshop but his unsupportive wife doesn't let him do much with it and when his Draft papers arrive he seems glad to get out. He's far from traditional Army material but with politeness and determination he does good and even sees-off a few Japs by driving over them in a digger. But he hasn't really changed, and when he arrives back home he would rather avoid the hero's welcome and just settle down again. While he's been away, his wife has come to her senses and has realised what a good man he is and all ends on a good note. This little film had me cheering at the end and I'm not ashamed to admit to a small tear. Just lovely.

Plainly aimed at waverers during World War II, this is a strange credit for screenwriter Waldo Salt, blacklisted in 1951 before (much) later bouncing back with his Oscar-winning scripts for 'Midnight Cowboy' and the anti-Vietnam 'Coming Home'.

Considering the title, it takes Wilbert Winkle (a name that sounds remarkably similar to Wendell Willkie, one of the few Republican interventionists prior to Pearl Harbor) a surprisingly long time even to get posted to duty in the Pacific; and he actually pesters those in charge not to give him the desk job for which he's obviously best suited but on the front line.

When at the start he approaches his boss to tell them he's quitting his job, we assume he's doing so to join the army. But No, he's actually setting up his own shop, in the face of fierce opposition of his harpie of a wife, Ruth Warrick. Then his call-up papers arrive, and despite being obviously way too old and obviously physically unfit somehow gets through basic training with a very middle-aged looking unit including Robert Armstrong and Sergeant Richard Lane; whereupon almost by accident he lays waste with a mechanical digger to a whole platoon of machine-gun wielding Japs and returns a hero and to the arms of his now-proud wife.

This is a war drama with some humor. Edward G. Robinson plays Wilbert Winkle, a somewhat nerdy, mild-mannered banker that decides to quit his job and open his own handyman fix-it shop. His overbearing wife Amy (Ruth Warrick) is very displeased and orders him to move into his shop in the garage. Nag, nag, nag and Wilbert is surprised and actually thrilled when he gets notice of being drafted for military duty during WWll; to put on that uniform and fight the Japanese. Who could ever image wimpy Mr. Winkle returning a war hero? Other players: Richard Lane, Ted Donaldson, Robert Armstrong, Bob Haymes, William Forrest, Warren Ashe and Hugh Beaumont.