While Preston Sturges dares to make comedy out of the “returning hero syndrome” with his Hail the Conquering Hero, John Steinbeck does the same in a serious mood in this Medal for Benny. The film is directed by lrving Pichel, a under-estimated director who produced some interesting film during W.W II, as The Man I Married, Happy Land, The Moon is Down, The Pied Piper. Benny is a poor Mexican who goes directly from jail to front. Although he is present all through the film, he never shows up: only a medal returns, but it is enough to change his friends and relatives’ lives and to have his neighbours trying to exploit his death. In the end Arturo De Cordova, in order to marry Benny’s former sweetheart (Dorothy Lamour) is forced to enlist.