Notes from Lou Sabini, when the film was presented at the November 10, 1996, meeting of the One Good Turn tent.

After fourteen years with Hal Roach, Stan and Babe decided to try the major studios, hoping to retain the artistic freedom to improvise and experiment with gag structure and plot development but with bigger budgets than they had enjoyed at Roach. They signed with Fox and learned to their dismay that no one shared their hopes.

Fox was a “B” film factory, so, even though the budgets were greater, the Boys’ artistic opportunities grew more limited. The fox publicity department said that Laurel and Hardy needed updating in their appearance and in their material. Clown white was out; darker makeup (like bad suntans) was in. Scriptwriters were called in who had never seen a Laurel and Hardy classic. Darryl Zanuck told Stan Laurel, who had taken an active role in every facet of filmmaking at Roach, to leave the writing, directing and overall storyline to the capable Fox staff. This hurt Stan deeply, but he relented rather than provide the gossip columnists with ammunition that would make him seem difficult and temperamental.

The resulting first effort was Great Guns, a ripoff of Universal’s Buck Privates, featuring the new comedy sensation, Abbott and Costello. In fairness to Fox, they did publicize the “new” Laurel and Hardy to the hilt and provided them with good production values, but the finished product looks tired, with Stan and Babe desperately trying to inject some of their former characteristics into scenes which could have been written for anybody.

The film’s other plusses include a competent director, Monty Banks (an ex-silent screen comic), and stunning photography by Glen MacWilliams. MacWilliams had been hired at Babe’s insistence, who had found his old friend and former cameraman living in England, practically destitute. MacWilliams’ work proved so good on this and other Fox films that Alfred Hitchcock used him for Lifeboat.

Along with the beautiful Sheila Ryan (later dubbed “Queen of the B’s”), look for Alan Ladd in one his early bit parts. One of John Ford’s favorite character actresses, Mae Marsh, plays Aunt Martha. Also in the cast is Kane Richmond, who later starred in Republic’s Spy Smasher and Haunted Harbor serials, and Billy Benedict, the immortal Whitey in the Bowery Boys series.