Great Guns [Laurel and Hardy]

November 21, 2020 tom.raymond Movie reviews 0

Great Guns, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, 1941

Great Guns (1941) starring Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy

Synopsis of Great Guns

In Great Guns, Laurel and Hardy work for sickly heir Dan Forrester. Doctors diagnosed him with a myriad of debilitating allergies. But the draft board sees things differently. And he’s very happy to leave the confines of his sick room. And so, his loyal employees join him in the U. S. Army. He seems to thrive on Army chow and regimen …. Even becoming a rival to the growling Sergeant Hippo for the affections of beautiful post employee Ginger Hammond. The bumbling Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy also get a chance to redeem themselves. By participating in the all-important war game maneuvers!

Review of Great Guns

Great Guns is an enjoyable Laurel and Hardy film.  The first of their 20th Century Fox films, it’s probably not as good as their Hal Roach films. But it’s still definitely enjoyable.

Comedy highlights include:

  • Glass of water/look at your watch routine times 2. Poor Ollie!
  • The war games, where Stan and Ollie seem to ruin things for their side. But then, they pull victory from the jaws of defeat!
  • Ollie swallowing the car key
  • Stan carrying long plank of wood times 2.

Cast

Funny movie quotes from Great Guns

Hippo: What did I ever do to deserve a couple of yaps like you?
Stan: Maybe you were good to your mother.
Hippo: Pipe down!
Stan: Yes, sir.
Hippo: Now at 10:00 you’re all going over for an IQ test, and according to the answers you give, you’ll be classified in a job.
Stan: Swell! We’re good at quizzes, aren’t we, Ollie?
Oliver: Maybe they’ll put me in the intelligence “corpse”.

Trivia for Great Guns

  • This was Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s first movie for a major studio. Their previous films had been released by MGM but not made by the studio. They were confounded by the ways of the Hollywood studio system. All of their previous films had been shot in sequence. They also had been directed, edited and supervised by an uncredited Stan Laurel; Fox did not allow him such creative activity. In later years Laurel continually and bitterly recalled the “shabby” treatment he and Hardy received from Fox and MGM.
  • This movie was Twentieth Century-Fox’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello‘s wartime comedy smash-hit Buck Privates (1941). The movie’s initial script even includes a reference to the A&C film. According to Stan Laurel’s daughter Lois Laurel, during the filming of Buck Privates Costello even came to Laurel several times to ask his advice on comedy matters.

Rude awakening

Army life in "Great Guns"
  • When Stan and Ollie signed with Fox Stan asked to be consulted on the scripts. He was assured that all would be okay. On completion of the film there was an option for them to make more. Fox was a much bigger operation than that of Hal Roach, but the technicians had none of the dedication that the Roach employees had. They also had no idea of the kind of comedy the Boys did. There was also the problem that Fox considered the Boys to be in the ‘B’ film category which meant smaller budgets.
  • While the writer of the film, Lou Breslow happily consulted with Stan and Ollie on the script, this didn’t happen with their other Fox films. Despite the consultation, they are depicted as a couple of dopes which had never happened with Roach.
  • Production meetings were held without Stan and Ollie. The film was the first and last directed by Monty Banks, who had no feel for comedy.
  • The director of photography was Glen MacWilliams, a friend of Ollie’s from the old days. He was involved with all areas of production. While he pointed out that their facial makeup made the Boys look ten years older than what they were nothing was done about it.
  • Further problems were that Stan wanted the film shot in sequence, which was what they were used to and with no rehearsals so that they had spontaneity and creativity but all this was refused.
  • Furthermore the director did not respond to their innovations and Stan was not allowed to take part in the editing.
  • Despite all this, the film became one of the biggest commercial successes of their career.

Cast of characters in Great Guns

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