The film begins with Harry and a security guard catching some robbers in his business. Low and behold, it turns out the guard and Harry once were buddies in WWI and begin to reminisce about the "good old days" back during the war (yes, I have learned from many old films that despite what you think, WWI was a laugh riot). From this point on, the film bounces back and forth between the present and the past. I liked these WWI vignettes, but really felt it would have flowed much better just to have set the film in WWI and not rely on flashbacks. They really tended to disrupt the film and didn't seamlessly integrate into the rest of the action.
As far as WWI comedies go, this was a lot better than many I have seen in that it was a short comedy so they stuffed a lot of humor into a small package. Many full-length ones tended to have more lulls and dead portions and sustaining the mood was more difficult. The best example of this is the terrible Keaton film, DOUGHBOYS (I love Keaton but this was a bad film). Another example, and still a pretty good film was Syd Chaplin's THE BETTER 'OLE--good, but too long to have sustained laughs.
As far as WWI comedies go, this was a lot better than many I have seen in that it was a short comedy so they stuffed a lot of humor into a small package. Many full-length ones tended to have more lulls and dead portions and sustaining the mood was more difficult. The best example of this is the terrible Keaton film, DOUGHBOYS (I love Keaton but this was a bad film). Another example, and still a pretty good film was Syd Chaplin's THE BETTER 'OLE--good, but too long to have sustained laughs.