While Ford briefly acknowledges the original message of the play, of youth sacrificed in the name of some abstract ideal, he is more interested in portraying men, perhaps more accurately, over-aged boys, who who would rather fight each other when not fighting the designated enemy. Fisticuffs aside, James Cagney and Dan Dailey are more in love with each other than either of them are with Corrine Calvet. Given the opportunity to run off with Calvet, they both choose to go off together to fight the Germans. Even military lifer William Demarest ignores the discharge papers he finally receives, choosing male comradeship and possible death.

There is one effective scene in What Price Glory? The soldiers are finally marching into battle, observed by the French civilians. In a long shot, Marisa Pavan is seen running up to Robert Wagner, grabbing a brief kiss before letting him go back into formation. Pavan runs up towards the camera, stopped by an MP who sticks his left arm, acting as a barrier between her and Wagner. Pavan looks over the arm which she is able to lower, expressing the foreboding that she may never see Wagner again.

Ford's Madonna/whore dichotomy is unmistakable in What Price Glory? as the film ends. Pavan is seen with a shawl over her head, a virgin in mourning, unsullied by sex. Calvet is shown making herself available to virtually any man in uniform, officers preferred. For Ford, Calvet's character is only good for two things, one being laundry. Neither Cagney nor Dailey is serious in their marriage proposals to Calvet. As soon as it's convenient, they would rather be caught dead with their comrades-in-arms rather than alive in the arms of a woman of questionable reputation.

More on Ford can be found at Inisfree.