A Medal for Benny (1945) DVD-R

Starring Dorothy Lamour, Arturo de Cordova, J. Carrol Naish, Mikhail Rasumny, Fernando
Alvarado, Frank McHugh, Rosita Moreno, Grant Mitchell, Douglass Dumbrille
Directed by Irving Pichel

Print: black/white
Runtime: 77 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

John Steinbeck cowrote this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching study of
small-town hypocrisy. Shiftless Benny (who is never seen) has been tossed out of his
Southern California town by the "proper" citizens. Drafted into the army, Benny is killed in
action—and now that he's a hero, his old home town gears up for a Congressional Medal of
Honor ceremony. Suddenly the same upright townsfolk who'd previously scorned Benny
and his impoverished father (J. Carroll Naish) bend over backward to prove how much they
"loved" the boy. Only Dorothy Lamour, playing Benny's former sweetheart, sees through the
sham, though she's honor bound to celebrate Benny's heroism. A Medal for Benny bestows
top billing upon Lamour, but the film's true star is J. Carroll Naish as Benny's volatile Italian
papa—a performance which won Naish an Academy Award nomination.