Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Robert J. Maxwell Coburn is Col. Effingham, recently retired from the U.S. Army and returned to the home town he left as a youth. It's 1940 and things have changed for the imperious old battle horse. He finds the "Home Folks Party", the mayor and his relatives, control everything in Fredericksville. They're corrupt and Coburn wangles a column in the local newspaper, stirring people to revolt against the changes introduced by the Home Folks Party. Why, they want to change the name of Confederate Memorial Square to Toolen Square, after some political bigwig.Let us make this as clear as the movie makes it. Charles Coburn is fighting to bring a halt to social change and bring back the venerable Confederate values of General Lee. They survived Sherman's march and they kicked out Reconstruction. Working women are scoffed at. The African-American "orderly" is given orders and happily marches around to a drum beat, when he's not being humiliated in swordplay with the colonel. (He's happy, though, except when cowering in fear.) It's kind of instructive though. The Home Folks party agrees to keep the name of Confederate Memorial Square and even beautify it with trees. At the same time they'll replace the 180 year old court house with a new one, meaning a work contract for the mayor's brother-in-law. We see the same dynamic at work in today's Congress. They attach "riders" to important legislation. The bill winds up looking like this: "We agree to continue funding the United States Armed Forces. PS: We will change the name of Fort Hancock to Fort Armistad." The battles continue between Coburn and his increasing number of supporters on the one hand, and the Home Folks party and its mayor on the other. The immortal Bess Flowers appears as a party guest. As the tale grows more serious, you'll find yourself rooting for Colonel Effingham and his "troops". The ending is a Capraesque caper.In the end, despite all the echoes of the Confederacy, I don't really see this as a message that the South was, and should continue to be, a paragon of old-fashioned virtue. The story could have taken place anywhere that had a bit of regional identity. Instead of the Confederate Memorial Square, it might have been the statue of the Minuteman at Concord. Instead of a community fight over tearing down the old courthouse, it might have been a disagreement over getting rid of Plymouth Rock and replacing it with a shopping mall owned by the mayor's brother-in-law.More important, it's an inoculation in 1940 for the coming war, just a taste of it, to get the adrenal medullas into shape. The narrator, a handsome young newspaper man, joins the Georgia National Guard and is introduced to a water-cooled Browning .30 caliber machine gun. There is a discussion about Fredericksville not being isolated from events in Europe, which are periodically alluded to. Colonel Effingham represents the practically, the adherence to tradition, and the élan of the military. He stirs things up. "Why did he have to come back here," moans the narrator, "when we were so peaceful and contented.""Colonel Effingham's Raid" was from a novel written by Georgian Barry Fleming and published in 1943. I imagine it was begun a year or two earlier, when the war had just begun or even maybe before Pearl Harbor, when isolationist sentiment was strong. Fleming was no retrograde pinhead. He'd been graduated from Harvard, spent some years in France, lived in New York, and his work was acclaimed by such respectable sources as the New York Times.

mark.waltz That is the basic theme of this Capra-esquire comedy starring Charles Coburn as the titled character, a colonel forced to retire who returns to his small Georgia home town he hasn't been in for years. He takes up a voluntary reporting job supposedly on the war. But he takes up a stand on local corruption, and becomes a public hero. Coburn is a force of nature as he takes on the politicians and money men, who as usual, are presented as old fuddy-duddies who don't appreciate his intrusion. But Coburn proves he is much more than a feisty senior citizen as he goes out of his way to show that a supposed civil war hero was nothing of the sort and not worth being honored by having a park renamed in his honor. The powers-that-be are not only angered by Coburn, but by the showing of support towards him by the majority of the public.In the background of this story, fellow reporters William Eythe and Joan Bennett stand with Coburn, but their romance is secondary to Coburn's feisty performance. He does a brief mean samba with Bennett to a Carmen Miranda tune, makes the town think about what is going on behind the scenes of their supposedly honest government, and turns the paper around. A nice moment comes when pages of the newspaper are displayed with quiet sound effects until an explosion is heard over the sight of Coburn's column.After winning the Oscar for "The More the Merrier", Coburn went from being a beloved character actor to one whose appearance in films were equal, if not greater, than the younger stars in the film. In this cast, he is surrounded by a virtual who's who of Hollywood's greatest character actors (among them Elizabeth Patterson as his sister and Thurston Hall as the mayor) who bring on the perfect 40's small town atmosphere, and they are excellent.A short and sometimes seemingly abridged social comedy with a Frank Capra like feel to it, "Col. Effingham's Raid" is enjoyable on many levels, but feels like it's missing a few necessary details.

MartinHafer The main reason I saw this film is that it starred the wonderful character actor, Charles Coburn. Well, in this sense, I wasn't disappointed as once again Coburn played the sort of crotchety but lovable guy he so often played in films. However, sadly the film seemed like it was very strongly inspired by MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (so it loses points for originality) and it unfortunately ended way too abruptly--like they knew it was supposed to be a B-picture so they ended it because this format wouldn't allow for a longer film! The film begins with the Colonel (Coburn) retiring to his childhood home in Georgia. Instead of just sitting back in a rocking chair, however, he wants to do a newspaper column to keep himself busy. At first, the column is very well received. However, when Coburn begins attacking the local corrupt administration, things start to get kind of crazy and soon it's this character and his new friends versus the establishment. This is all sort of a history lesson on politics and grassroots politics and when the mayor and his cronies dig in their heels for a fight the film gets interesting. Oddly, however, after setting up this great confrontation, it just seems to end! In the matter of just a couple minutes, everyone agrees to Coburn's demands and they all live happily ever after!! What a letdown at the end.Overall, a pleasant and entertaining film that is worth watching but could have been even better. Excellent characters but a limp finale make this more of a nice time-passer than anything else.

bkoganbing Charles Coburn took a bit from his Academy Award winning performance in The More The Merrier and a bit from his imperious father in Vivacious Lady to create the unfazed Colonel Effingham in Colonel Effingham's Raid. It's one of the few films where this distinguished character actor is given the lead role and he makes the most of it.Through sheer stubbornness and will power Coburn is given a column on the local newspaper where his nephew William Eythe and Joan Bennett are also employed. It's supposed to be a column about the impending war news for this film set in 1940, but Coburn sees it as a great opportunity to rouse public opinion in that sleepy Georgia town against the ruling clique which has been in power so long they just treat the city money and assets like their own.The city fathers are a group taken right out of a Preston Sturges classic and I wouldn't be surprised if this film might have been something offered to him. Thurston Hall makes a genially corrupt mayor, this is one of his best efforts.Catch this film the next time TCM runs it, it's a real unknown gem.