The first of four Laurel & Hardy features co-written by Harry Langdon, a comic superstar of the silent era who had fallen on hard times. The premise of the film - with Stan as a WWI veteran in France unaware that the war is over, and his readjustment to society - was adapted from Langdon's 1926 film Soldier Man (1926). Stan Laurel admired Langdon and used him as a gag writer for The Flying Deuces (1939), A Chump at Oxford (1940), and Saps at Sea (1940).
At the beginning of the film, there's a sign pointing to the trench called "COOTIE AVE". "Cootie" was a slang term for lice--a scourge of soldiers in the trenches during the war.
Final film of director John G. Blystone, who died of a heart attack on August 6, 1938, at the age of 45. He had just finished supervising the final cut of this film, which was released two weeks after his death.
Most of the battle scenes at the beginning of the film were clips taken from The Big Parade (1925), Wings (1927), and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).
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