Great Guns
Cast & Crew
Montague Banks
Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Shelia Ryan
Dick Nelson
Edmund Macdonald
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Wealthy Daniel Forrester IV, who is believed to be in very poor health by his well-meaning but interfering aunts, Martha and Agatha, is overjoyed when he receives his draft notice, for he will finally have a chance to prove that he is physically fit. After Daniel passes his army physical, his chauffeur, Oliver Hardy, and gardener, Stan Laurel, join the army with Daniel so that they can take care of their beloved employer. During basic training in the cavalry unit at Fort Merritt, Texas, Daniel thrives on the discipline and hard work, but the sheltered Stan and Ollie are thrown in a tizzy by the unfamiliar regulations and routines. Their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hippo, quickly identifies the boys as bumblers, and is continually irritated by the antics of Stan's pet crow, "Penelope." Hippo is further annoyed when Daniel attracts the attention of pretty Ginger Hammond, who works at the base developing photographs. Ginger's interest in Daniel goads the jealous Hippo, who has been courting her in vain, to threaten the new recruit. Later, Stan and Ollie overhear Daniel proclaim his love for Ginger as he talks in his sleep and, worried that a romance would strain his heart, decide to dissuade Ginger from pursuing the relationship. Posing as a government inspector and a Wall Street tycoon, Ollie and Stan visit Ginger and tell her that Daniel is actually broke, even though he says he is rich. Ginger, who recognizes the boys from one of Daniel's photographs, dramatically tells them that she will never give him up and throws them out. Distraught, Stan and Ollie ask Hippo for his advice, and in order to break Daniel's date with Ginger, Hippo cancels his furlough and throws him in the guardhouse. Soon after, Stan and Ollie participate in maneuvers, during which the blue team is supposed to construct a bridge and attack the white team. The boys act as spies for the white team, but are quickly captured and forced to help build the blue team's bridge. When Hippo taunts Daniel about his friends' capture, Daniel escapes and gets Penelope. Daniel tells Penelope to find Stan, and the crow leads Daniel and the white team to the blue team's bridge. The white team blows up the bridge and wins the games, and soon after, Ginger proudly watches with Agatha and Martha as Daniel marches during an inspection. Penelope participates in her own uniform, and Stan and Ollie bring up the rear in a sanitation truck.
Director
Montague Banks
Cast
Stan Laurel
Oliver Hardy
Shelia Ryan
Dick Nelson
Edmund Macdonald
Charles Trowbridge
Ludwig Stossel
Kane Richmond
Mae Marsh
Ethel Griffies
Paul Harvey
Charles Arnt
Pierre Watkin
Russell Hicks
Irving Bacon
Charles Tannen
Fred Kohler Jr.
Tom Seidel
Lyle Latell
Bob Hoffman
Billy Benedict
David Willock
Barry Regan
Alan Ladd
Dick Rich
Max Wagner
James Dundee
Billy Wayne
James Flavin
Leroy Mason
Harold Goodwin
Edward Earle
Ivan Miller
Cyril Ring
Bud Geary
Walter Sande
J. Anthony Hughes
William Forrest
Basil Walker
Robert Lowery
Robert Cornell
Crew
Marvin J. Berenzweig
Harry Brand
Lou Breslow
Richard Day
Al Degaetano
W. D. Flick
Charles Hall
Herschel
Albert Hogsett
William Koenig
Harry M. Leonard
Thomas Little
Glen Macwilliams
Emil Newman
Manning O'connor
Curley Twiford
Sol M. Wurtzel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Forward March. It was the first picture made by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy for Twentieth Century-Fox. Although a April 24, 1941 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that the comedians had been signed by the studio to a contract specifying that they make nine films on a two-per-year basis, they made only six pictures for the company. (Their first feature film was the 1931 Hal Roach release Pardon Us. See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-1950; F3.3372.) Many modern sources comment on the disparity between the films Laurel and Hardy made for Twentieth Century-Fox and Hal Roach, noting that while at Roach, Laurel had considerable input into writing, directing and editing their pictures. At Twentieth Century-Fox, however, Laurel had little control over their films, and their makeup and costuming were also changed to some extent.
According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library, Manning O'Connor and an unnamed writer went to Fort MacArthur and Camp Roberts, CA to study military procedures and observe new recruits going through basic training. The files also note that screenplay writer Lou Breslow intended for the picture to be set in "a cavalry division post similar to Fort Bliss, TX." The Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, also at UCLA, note that the railroad station scenes were shot on location in Inglewood, CA. Great Guns was the last feature film that comedian/director Montague (Monty) Banks directed, and was also the only feature film he directed in the United States. He immigrated to the United States in 1940 with his wife, English actress Gracie Fields, after Great Britain entered World War II and Banks was declared an alien because of his Italian birth.
