Heroes for Sale

On the Western Front during World War I, Tom Holmes volunteers to go alone after his friend Roger Winston refuses to leave a shell hole. He tracks and captures a German soldier, but is believed killed when his unit assumes he has died. In truth, Tom is wounded and taken to a German hospital behind the lines.

Roger brings the captured German back to American lines and is celebrated with a medal, his modesty dismissed as humility. Tom is not dead, but remains a patient in a German hospital, presumed lost to the war. The front-line cheers contrast with Tom’s grim fate behind enemy lines.

German doctors treat Tom’s pain with morphine during his captivity, and the drug quickly becomes a crutch he cannot shake. The addiction shadows his return and future, complicating every decision he makes. His resolve is tested as he struggles to break free.

When Tom returns home, Roger offers him a job at his father’s bank, a gesture born of remorse and a wish to restore Tom’s standing. Tom accepts and begins the long process of rebuilding his life, albeit with a wary sense of the past looming over him. The offer foreshadows a path that will lead him far from the battlefield.

Tom’s addiction costs him his job, and he is confined and cured in an asylum. He is released in 1922, unemployed and alone, and learns that his mother has died, apparently of shame and grief, while he was away. The scars of his past follow him into the future.

Heading to Chicago, Tom finds a modest apartment above a diner run by Pop Dennis and his daughter Mary. He takes a job in a laundry and begins a romance with Ruth Loring. Tom’s determination quickly makes him a standout driver and a rising figure in town.

A radical inventor unveils a machine to simplify washing and drying clothes, and Tom persuades his fellow workers to raise money to patent it. The workers back the project with the understanding that no one will lose their job. The plant adopts the machinery under Tom’s condition, promising stability for the workforce.

Mr. Gibson dies, and the new owners decide to automate the plant, breaking the earlier deal and firing most workers, including Tom. The community’s security disappears as technology replaces labor. Tom’s carefully laid plans begin to unravel.

Fired workers riot at the plant, and Tom does his best to stop them from destroying the machines. Ruth is killed while searching for him, and Tom is arrested as a mob ringleader, receiving a five-year prison sentence. The dream of reform collapses into punishment and chaos.

Tom serves five years, and the invention’s sales continue nationwide, creating a fortune beyond his personal take. He refuses the windfall and directs the profits to feed the hungry at Pop Dennis’s diner. His wealth becomes a tool to help others during hard times.

As the Depression deepens, Red Riots erupt and Tom is arrested by the city’s Red Squad, then driven out of town. The era’s fear and hunger push him toward a fragile sense of exile. The social climate underscores the harsh realities faced by the unemployed.

Tom ends up in a hobo shantytown beside his old comrade Roger Winston, both ruined by the era’s collapse. Roger reveals that his father’s theft from the bank led to his own downfall and imprisonment and suicide. The two veterans cling to a stubborn hope that America might recover.

Tom delivers a stirring speech asserting that America can and will recover, and that he will help lead the way. He continues to move forward, helping the line of needy people at the diner with the profits he provided. A plaque on the wall honors him, and his son vows to be just like his dad.

The diner line endures, fed by Tom’s generosity, while a wall plaque memorializes his gift. The film closes with his son declaring he will grow up to be like him, signaling that heroism endures beyond war. The message remains that a war hero can become a lasting beacon of resilience for a nation.