The ancient and hoary myth that the American Serviceman is somehow more virile than his Old-World counterparts: a myth which sustained Hollywood successfully during and immediately after the war years, when the implication was firmly rooted in the minds of the mass audiences that fighting with lethal weapons was rather a lark anyway, and that in any case it was only engaged in if there weren't any girls around to chase at that particular moment—this myth served to enhance the spurious glamour with which war subjects were treated. Nowadays, of course, this glamour has been replaced by cynical detachment. War is still a game, albeit a somewhat wry one….

Not With My Wife You Don't … harks back to the 'glamour' school. (p. 31)

A reasonably good script helps the old chestnut along, and the double crosses and double-double crosses are diverting…. If present-day audiences tend to look for...