It was nominated for everything - Gary Cooper and editor William Holmes won. Despite the four writers credited, Hawks told Peter Bogdanovich that John Huston 'did it all'.
In two and a quarter hours we start out with a rowdy farmer who reaches a Road to Damascus turning point and gets religion - with much delight from preacher / store owner Walter Brennan. And despite somewhat unwillingly joining World War 1, he ends up a hero, capturing a load of Germans - it was all true, though as Hawks adds, it was the tail end of the war and he thought the Germans probably wanted to surrender.
Good cast as well - didn't recognise Joan Leslie, though she was in High Sierra - a typically feisty Hawks heroine. Margaret Wycherly is the mother (also Cagney's mother in White Heat). With George Tobias, Stanley Ridges, Ward Bond, Noah Beery Jr., June Lockhart and Dickie Moore (the siblings), Howard da Silva.
Photographed by Sol Polito and Arthur Edeson (battle scenes). Familiar sounding score from Max Steiner, orchestrated as usual by Hugo Friedhofer. Long but doesn't flag - most entertaining and extraordinarily true.
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