Sons o' Guns

A mild-mannered stage comedian is most unhappily swept up into the World War One Army and shipped off to France.

Fast-moving & fun, SONS O' GUNS is another example of the comedy picture that Warner Bros. was so expert at producing during the 1930's. Casts & plots could be shuffled endlessly, with very predictable results. While this assembly line approach created few classics, audience enjoyment could usually be assured.

Putty-faced comic Joe E. Brown dominates the film with his special brand of wacky humor. Given a good script, Brown could be a very funny fellow indeed and he lives up to his reputation here, his tremendous mouth and mischievous eyes always on the move, waiting to signal the next wisecrack. Many of his jokes vigorously push the boundaries of the Production Code, which only adds to their amusement.

Pretty Joan Blondell, playing an innocent French miss (with a strangely Russian-sounding accent), very much takes second fiddle to Brown, letting him dominate nearly all of their scenes. And even her limited screen time has to be shared with Beverly Roberts as Brown's disaffected fiancée & Wini Shaw as one of the women out of his past. Still, Blondell is always lovely to look at and the film is fortunate to have her.

Brown's true costar in the movie is Eric Blore, very droll as the respectful British valet who becomes his employer's tough-talking sergeant in the war's front lines. The very different acting styles of these two gentlemen mesh quite well on screen, and, particularly in their first scenes, provide the viewer with some very enjoyable moments.

Movie mavens will recognize Mischa Auer in a small role as a jovial German spy.

Joe E. Brown's limited arsenal of comic effects may not be to everyone's taste, but in most of his B-comedies of the 1930s he employed them expeditiously. Even when playing a braggart or an egotist, there was - eventually - something lovable about the character getting his comeuppance when he learns that the girl means more to him than his ego.

But this picture, in addition to minimizing the mugging and the knockabout comedy that was Brown's stock in trade, pushes the downbeat characterization too far: a draft-dodger, a slacker who gropes to rationalize his obvious cowardice, in addition to being a stage star admired by the ladies but returning little of their affection. In brief, he is not likable, and he is not funny.

A few minutes of the film are enjoyable, but interestingly both scenes are insertions which could have been lifted without affecting the story line, and which, I suspect, may have been spliced in to give the picture some life: Brown's Apache pantomime, and the brief but charming dance with Joan Blondell in the barroom.

Brown's pictures were usually better, and seldom worse.

Broadway actor Jimmy Canfield (Joe E. Brown) leads a patriotic show to sell war bonds, but refuses to fight in the war himself. Neither his girlfriend nor her military father accepts his slacking. He pretends to be a soldier and ends up joining the war for real. He insists on shirking his responsibilities.

I'm a little conflicted for most of this movie. He's a horrible soldier and it doesn't reflect well on the military. It's the pre-war years at WB. They tend to make some more pro-military fare. At another time, this may be funny. It does come to the right place at the end. At least, it has that.

Well, Sons o' Guns was on TCM this afternoon. Being a lazy bum, having nothing better to do, and being a rather big fan of Joan Blondell, I reclined on the sofa and watched it. I missed the first five minutes and a couple minutes here and there, but the gist is this: Joe E Brown is a somewhat bumbling private who ends up first being in a lot of trouble and then becoming a big hero. The accents were fairly bad. Most notably Joan Blondell's French one and various of the Germans'. When Mr. Brown, in the movie Dzzeemee (That, of course, is Jimmy in Joan Blondell French), did accents they were ok. The singing and dancing numbers left something to be desired, but on the whole it was a charming film. I don't necessarily reccomend it, but it was charming none the less. I give it a 5 out of 10. I have the feeling it would have been better if Busby Berkely would have been involved, but really, I don't know a lot of musicals that I couldn't say the same thing for.

Joan Blondell only has a small part in this - it's virtually a pure Joe E Brown film but despite that it's actually a really good fun little movie. Had I realised that this was solely a Joe E Brown vehicle I'd probably have skipped it but I'm so glad I didn't.

Despite the utter silliness of this story (which I loved), unusually for a film of this era, there's a very strong pacifist theme running through it. Although tens of thousands of people would have been watching this desperately trying to believe that their husbands and sons didn't die in vain, this, through Brown's pacifist character asks the obvious question: why is America fighting Germany and Austria? Even though there were unfortunately valid reasons why Europe went to war, it's difficult to see any logical reasoning or justification to explain why Germany provoked Wilson to get involved. Especially in America, by the mid-thirties, when this was made, the whole exercise was being thought of as a big stupid mistake and this silly bit of fun with its pacifist anti-war hero and idiot commanders captures that particular zeitgeist. This film isn't however a savage satire on geopolitics, it's just a silly comedy... it does make you think though.

Apart from having the best line in SOME LIKE IT HOT, I'm not too familiar with Joe E Brown but I enjoyed his performance in this. He had a very engaging presence and knew what it took to be entertaining without being annoying. Al Jolson was originally signed up to play 'Jimmy' which might have been interesting but I don't think this film suffers at all from the switch to Brown - especially with his Jeeves-like sidekick, Eric Blore. Some, well to be honest, most comedies from the mid-thirties are decidedly unfunny when watched today but this one still holds up remarkably well. It's directed professionally and economically by reliable Lloyd Bacon and the script - adapted from a very successful stage play works perfectly on the screen.

I admit the only reason I watched this was because of Joan Blondell and there's no greater reason on earth than that. Her flirty French barmaid with that crazy accent could have been the inspiration for Yvette in TV's 'Allo 'Allo - she's fantastic in this and nice to see her doing something a little bit different. Although she's only on screen for about fifteen minutes, if you're a Joan Blondell fan, those fifteen minutes might just be the greatest fifteen minutes of your whole life. Whatever other ambitions or goals you have, forget them because you have got to watch this - it's the pinnacle of your life, if not the pinnacle of the existence of mankind. Do whatever it takes to see this - sell your house, sell your children into slavery, rob a bank in order to buy Warner Brothers so you can get yourself a copy - it'll be worth it. She is utterly, utterly, utterly gorgeous in this.