Main Cast: Andy Griffith, Nick Adams, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, Howard I. Smith
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
Plot
Mac Hyman's hilarious barracks novel No Time for Sergeants was adapted for TV by Ira Levin in 1955, with newcomer Andy Griffith as bumptious Air Force draftee Will Stockdale. This TV version was soon afterward transformed into a Broadway play, and then a movie, again with Griffith in the lead. Brought to the Air Force base in handcuffs because his farmer father has been hiding his draft notices, good-natured Will becomes the target of ridicule for the other transcripts. Especially nasty is Private Irvin (Murray Hamilton), but Will is able to forgive him because he knows that Irvin is suffering from some mysterious disease called ROTC. Will's best pal is hot-headed private Ben (Nick Adams), who wants to be transferred to the Infantry and convinces Will to try for the same goal. Slowly becoming aware that the trusting, naïve Will may prove to be a troublemaker, career sergeant King (Myron McCormick), who wants nothing more out of life than a little peace and quiet, tries to keep Stockdale out of mischief by appointing him "PLO" -- Permanent Latrine Orderly, a dubious distinction in which Will takes enormous pride. Later on, King tries to pull strings to get Will transferred, succeeding only in losing his sergeant's stripes. The story goes off on a zany tangent when Will and Ben find themselves on a crippled plane in flight. They manage to escape with their lives, but all evidence suggests that they've been killed in the plane's crash. Imagine the dismay of newly reinstated Sergeant King when Will and Ben show up in his office -- just as the entire base is gathered for a memorial service for the two "fallen heroes." Featured in a minor role as a "coordination officer" is Griffth's future TV cohort Don Knotts, while Sammy Jackson, who played Stockdale in a 1964 sitcom version of No Time for Sergeants, shows up in an unbilled bit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
While modern audiences may miss some of the references in No Time for Sergeants, that shouldn't get in the way of them enjoying this laugh riot of a film. Indeed, many who approach Sergeants skeptically will find themselves totally disarmed by its simple charms. After all, who hasn't seen more service comedies than he's care to count -- many of which use many of the same situations and variations on the same characters as can be found in Sergeants? But there's an air of freshness about the film, even many decades after its creation, so that even when county bumpkin Andy Griffith falls into a familiar fish-out-of-water situation, viewers will still find themselves amused. More than amused -- engaged. For that is Sergeant's secret weapon: it has a heart. Not a gooey, sappy one -- a pulsing, glad-to-be-alive, isn't life wonderful heart that comes across as real and sincere, rather than manufactured (even if its plotting COULD be called manufactured). Credit Mervyn LeRoy's deft direction and John Lee Mahin's laugh-a-minute screenplay, but reserve the lion's share of credit to Griffith's disarming, lovable portrayal. It is a role he was born to play and he shines throughout. The rest of the cast, including Nick Adams and Myron McCormick, are excellent -- but Griffith is superb. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
No Time for Sergeants is a 1958 American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy starring Andy Griffith and featuring Myron McCormick, Don Knotts and most of the original Broadway cast. Warner Brothers contract player Nick Adams joined the cast as Stockdale's fellow military draftee Benjamin B. Whitledge, as did Murray Hamilton as Irving S. Blanchard. The film is based on a play inspired by the original novel.
Will Stockdale is a backward, backwoods rube who may or may not be smarter than he looks. Accused by the government of being a draft dodger, it turns out that Stockdale's draft notices have been hidden from him by his father, who doesn't want the boy to leave home and be ridiculed.
Shackled by handcuffs, Stockdale joins a group of new U.S. Army and Air Force recruits being transported to basic training. They include the obnoxious Irving S. Blanchard, who having undergone ROTC training volunteers to be in charge. (Stockdale hears that Irving had ROTC and thinks it's a disease.)
They report to boot camp, where Stockdale and his equally dim friend, Ben Whitledge, begin the struggle to become soldiers.
Stockdale is incredibly strong and can drink any man under the table, but beyond that he is a hayseed who makes one idiotic mistake after another. He proceeds to make life miserable for the man in charge, Sergeant King, who is approaching retirement and likes his barracks to be quiet and calm. In exasperation, the sergeant places the country bumpkin on full-time washroom duty. Stockdale believes his new position of "P.L.O." (Permanent Latrine Orderly) to be a promotion.
The happy-go-lucky Stockdale feels that King must be "the best dang sergeant in whole dang Air Force." The totally unhappy Whitledge wants no part of it, lamenting that the rank of "Airman" is "like something from a funny book." Ben wants to be assigned to the regular Army's infantry instead. He says, "In the War Between the States, it was the infantry that did the fighting," which is understandable, airplanes not having been invented yet.
A company inspection takes a surprising turn when Stockdale's immaculately clean latrine is what impresses King's superiors most (complete with a rigged salute from all of its toilet seats). King gets into hot water, however, when Stockdale opens his big mouth and reveals that the sergeant kept him on bathroom duty on a permanent basis while also neglecting to have the recruit complete all the required military exams and paper work.
Rushing him through testing, King promises to give Stockdale his wristwatch if he can pass. Stockdale flummoxes the various officers who make him take a manual dexterity test (conducted by Don Knotts), a psychiatric test and an eye exam, amazingly managing to get by. He gets the wristwatch as a reward while also getting Sgt. King and Pvt. Blanchard into more trouble in a barroom brawl.
The story ends with Stockdale and Whitledge alone at the controls of a B-25 jet during "Operation Prometheus." (This came at the time of the A-Bomb experiments at Yucca Flats, Nevada.) The Air Force and Army are put on full alert. Stockdale and Whitledge bail out of the plane and are declared dead by Sgt. King. During a ceremony honoring them as fallen heroes, they reappear and the Air Force has to cover up that the pair are alive.
Stockdale suggests both he and Ben be transferred to the Army as infantrymen. An agreement is reached by two former West Point classmates, General Vernon Pollard, USAF and General Eugene Bush, USA, who also heartily approve of Stockdale's last request -- to have Sgt. King transferred with them.
The setting for the film (and later TV version) was updated to reflect the then-current peacetime forces of the 50's and the characters were members of the now separate United States Air Force.
Reception
The film version was a major hit and was largely responsible for launching the careers of Griffith and Knotts.
