No Time for Sergeants

1958
U
1h 59m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

Nick Adams, Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Myron McCormick, and Jean Willes in No Time for Sergeants (1958)

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Farce Comedy War

Will Stockdale is a country bumpkin from Georgia who is drafted into the United States Air Force and is too dumb to realize that he is driving everyone around him crazy, no one more so than ... Read allWill Stockdale is a country bumpkin from Georgia who is drafted into the United States Air Force and is too dumb to realize that he is driving everyone around him crazy, no one more so than Sergeant King.Will Stockdale is a country bumpkin from Georgia who is drafted into the United States Air Force and is too dumb to realize that he is driving everyone around him crazy, no one more so than Sergeant King.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews68

Featured review

10/10

Classic, funny stuff!

This movie is on my list of my favorite funny movies of all time. I 've lost count of how many times I've seen it, yet each time I view it, I laugh out loud all over again. It's side-splitting humor without crudeness and vulgarity - a quality that today's movies sadly lack. One of my favorite scenes is where all the draftees are being inducted - particularly where Will comes to the aid of his buddy Private Whitledge. I don't know if this is the first film pairing of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, but their chemistry is readily apparent, in the scene where Private Stockdale is having his manual dexterity tested. I live in the southern Appalachians and I never felt once like this movie was derogatory and condescending towards mountain people. Yes, Andy Griffith's Will Stockdale was extremely naive, but he was never portrayed as being less of a human being because he was from the southern mountains and less experienced in life. I always felt like Private Stockdale's naiveté enabled him to approach things from a different perspective (albeit unknowingly) and come up with quite unique solutions. Andy Griffith was, and is, a master at portraying this kind of character.

tarheelcoin
Nov 10, 2005
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Trivia
The latrine scene in this film was the first time that toilets had been shown onscreen in a Hollywood film (predating the film Psycho (1960) by two years).

Goofs
The film has Will and Ben being drafted into the Air Force and seeking transfer into the Army infantry. At the time that it was made, by law draftees were automatically assigned to the Army for two years (e.g., Elvis Presley); the Air Force has never had to use the draft since it became a separate branch of the military in 1947. The original novel and Broadway play that the film is based on did have Will drafted into the Army during World War II and seeking to transfer to what was then the Army Air Corps, but the film was set in 1958 when interservice transfers were no longer being done.

Quotes
Maj. Demming: Do you get along all right with your mother?
Will Stockdale: No, sir, I can't hardly say that I do...
Maj. Demming: Oh, I see. She's very strict with you; she's always hovering over you, hmm?
Will Stockdale: No, sir, just the opposite.
Maj. Demming: Oh, she's never there?
Will Stockdale: That's right.
Maj. Demming: And you, uh, you resent this neglect, don't you?
Will Stockdale: Well, no, sir. I don't resent nothin'.
Maj. Demming: Ah, come now, son. Now don't be bashful - that's a common situation. Does, uh, she beat you?
Will Stockdale: Naw!
Maj. Demming: [chuckles] Oh, so defensive. Well, it's not easy to talk about your mother, is it?
Will Stockdale: No sir, see, she died when I was born.