Sons o' Guns (1936)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Jerry Wald (screenplay) and
Julius J. Epstein (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 May 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Broadway star Jimmy Canfield stars in a patriotic show on the great white way during WWI. He plays the heroic soldier...

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Prison | WWI | France | Escape

Cast

Joe E. Brown	...	Jimmy Canfield
Joan Blondell	...	Yvonne
Beverly Roberts	...	Mary Harper
Eric Blore	...	Hobson
Craig Reynolds	...	Lieut. Burton
Wini Shaw	...	Bernice Pearce (as Winifred Shaw)
Joe King	...	General Harper (as Joseph King)
Robert Barrat	...	Pierre
G.P. Huntley	...	Capt. Ponsonby-Falcke (as G.P. Huntley Jr.)
Frank Mitchell	...	Ritter
Bert Roach	...	Vogel
David Worth	...	Arthur Travers (as Dave Worth)
Hans Joby	...	German Prisoner
Michael Mark	...	Carl
Otto Fries	...	German Spy

Runtime:

Germany:75 min | USA:82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2022) | Finland:K-16 (1936)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The musical play, Sons O' Guns, opened at the Imperial Theatre in New York on 26 November 1929 and closed on 9 August 1930 after 295 performances. Co-Writer Jack Donahue played 'Jimmy Canfield' in the opening night cast, which also included Lili Damita as Yvonne and William Frawley as Hobson.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The two German spies, Otto Fries and Mischa Auer are vocally identified onscreen as Ritter and Vogel, the character names listed in the credits for Frank Mitchell and Bert Roach. Mitchell and Roach are 2 Germans taken prisoner by Jimmy. Joe King is listed as General Harper, but he's called Colonel in the movie.

Soundtrack:

In the Arms of an Army Man

... Not too bad, not too good. FAKE FRENCH ACCENTS MAKE ME HAPPY!

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.