Red Skelton was nearing the end of his long association with MGM when he made this comic look at suburban life. He stars as a magazine writer whose boss hates the suburbs. When his wife demands they move their family out of their cramped New York City apartment, he agrees but doesn't tell the boss. Then he's assigned to write an exposé on the shallowness of suburban life. This was the studio's second attempt to move Skelton out of the slapstick vehicles that had made him a big moneymaker, following on the heels of his dramatic remake of The Champ (1931), The Clown (1953). Half a Hero brought him back to comedy, but in a more subdued tone, with a script by satirist Max Shulman, author of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which MGM had filmed in 1953 as The Affairs of Dobie Gillis. The picture also marked the final MGM appearance for Jean Hagen, who would move to TV as Danny Thomas' wife in Make Room for Daddy, while featuring supporting turns by Mary Wickes and Kathleen Freeman and a cameo by Polly Bergen, singing a sizzling rendition of "Love."

By Frank Miller