Main Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sheila Ryan, Dick Nelson, Edmund MacDonald
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 74 minutes
Plot
In their first 20th Century-Fox vehicle, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are cast respectively as the butler and chauffeur of wealthy young Dan Forrester (Dick Nelson). Tired of being pampered and coddled by his overprotective aunts (Mae Marsh, Ethel Gryffies), Dan is delighted when he is drafted into the Army. To make certain that no harm will befall their "frail" master, Stan and Ollie also don uniform and accompany Dan to US Cavalry training camp. While the boys get mixed up in one disaster after another-at one point, they find themselves behind a moving target on the rifle range-Dan pursues a romance with photo-shop proprietor Ginger Hammond (Sheila Ryan), much to the consternation of Ginger's erstwhile beau Sergeant Hippo (Edmund MacDonald). Convinced that Ginger is a gold-digger, Stan and Ollie try to break up the romance, to no avail. All plotlines are resolved during a climactic "sham battle", wherein Dan proves his courage and grit while Laurel & Hardy end up captured by the "enemy". Obviously inspired by the success of Abbott & Costello's Buck Privates (it's even more obvious in the earlier drafts of the script), Great Guns is a major letdown from Laurel & Hardy's previous starring features at Hal Roach Studios, with Stan and Ollie looking most uncomfortable as they mouth the inanities written for them by Lou Breslow. Still, a few good bits emerge, including a surrealistic routine with a faulty light bulb and an amusing bridge-building sequence. Watch for Alan Ladd in a jaunty bit role as a camera-store customer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Definitely a mixed blessing, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's first feature comedy for a major studio, 20th Century Fox, features one of the team's best non-Hal Roach moments: Pvt. Oliver Hardy attempting to appear nonchalant at an army inspection with Laurel's pet crow stuffed down the back of his pants. It is exactly the kind of physical humor -- action and especially reaction -- the team did so well and the scene never fails to earn a hardy laugh. Not quite as funny -- to put it mildly -- is Lou Breslau's often inane one-liner heavy dialogue that not only seems downright crude for this, the gentlest of comedy teams, but wouldn't have passed muster even in an Abbott and Costello-style comedy, which was obviously Breslau's -- and executive producer Sol M. Wurtzel's -- goal for Great Guns. The supporting cast is what you'd expect: Dick Nelson, a radio performer who does well enough in the romantic lead but military duties prevented any future films, and Sheila Ryan, who is always a welcome addition to a Fox programmer. Director Monty Banks, who hailed from the silent comedy days, keeps things running at a fast clip, another fatal mistake vis-à-vis Laurel and Hardy, whose comedy routines demanded a slow, steady buildup for maximum effect. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Richard Day - Art Director, Albert Hogsett - Art Director, Herschel - Costume Designer, Monty Banks - Director, Alfred de Gaetano - Editor, Emil Newman - Composer (Music Score), Emil Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Glen MacWilliams - Cinematographer, Sol Wurtzel - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Lou Breslow - Screenwriter
Pampered and sickly young millionaire Dan Forrester (Dick Nelson) joins the army, helped and hindered by his gardener Stan Laurel and his chauffeur Oliver Hardy. While there, he falls in love with a woman, Ginger Hammond (Sheila Ryan), who runs a photography store and is the girl friend of his Sgt. Hippo (Edmund MacDonald). Laurel and Hardy emerge triumphant after some mock war maneuvers[1]
Trivia
The first of Laurel and Hardy's post-Hal Roach features, Great Guns is generally regarded as the start of the team's decline, since they were given unsuitable, out-of-character scripts to work with, and very little artistic freedom behind the camera. At Hal Roach Studios, Stan Laurel looked on such creativity behind as well as in front of the camera as routine, but Twentieth Century Fox did not allow such luxuries. Allegedly, Stan Laurel is said to have been ashamed of the team's films at Fox and MGM in later life[2]
Future film star Alan Ladd appears briefly as a photo store customer; he however does not share any scenes with Laurel and Hardy.
