Joe Smith, American

The title should tell you that this was a flag-waver and in the dark days of 1942, America needed to see Old Glory wafting in the breeze. However, such good taste and restraint are used in the movie that the audience never realized they were being manipulated into the "war mode" and the result was a box-office hit and a good and proud feeling on the part of everyone who saw it. It's about "the little guy"--one of the scores of people who are behind every fighting man on the battle lines--and the character is not unlike the person played by Robert Cummings in Hitchcock's SABOTEUR. Young is a happily married factory worker, an average Joe with an average wife, Hunt, ...