The "Comique Troupier" (coarse comedy) in all it splendor...or in all its horror ,depending on whom you ask.The stories of privates doing their military service were then very popular and they enjoyed a deplorable "revival" in the seventies ,which spawned the Charlots movies,the nadir of that era.
Based on Georges Courteline's novel ,it seems terribly old-fashioned today;all the scenes in the barracks are comic clichés ,always revolving around punishments and the way to avoid them.In consequence,the scenes which take place outside the barracks are more successful :Fernandel and his mate have to pick up horses but they take the wrong train and they wind up in an one-horse town where they hope to find a brothel:it is moderately funny ,but Courteline is not Maupassant and don't expect "La Maison Tellier" or "Une Soirée".
More "private Fernandel" stuff:
-"Les Gaietés De L'Escadron" (Tourneur,1932)
-"Le Coq Du Régiment" (Cammage,1933)
-"Ignace " (Colombier,1937) etc
