In 1941, after President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress passed the first peacetime draft in U.S. history, Buster Keaton approached MGM to see if they would be interested in making a sequel to "Doughboys." He had found that all the principal actors in "Doughboys" were still alive and living in the L.A. area, and he intended to use them in the sequel as they had naturally aged. MGM's executives turned him down because they didn't think a comedy about the peacetime draft would draw audiences. Then Universal released Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates," a comedy about the peacetime draft, and it became the most successful film of 1941.
Although some sources add Ann Dvorak and Ann Sothern, then working as Harriet Lake, to the cast as chorines, they do not appear in the present 79 minute version offered on Turner Classic Movies. The running time given in Variety 24 September 1930, at the time of its opening in New York City 19 September 1930 at the Capitol Theatre is 80 minutes, so apparently the TCM print is virtually complete. Most likely, a musical number in which Dvorak and Lake appeared was cut before the film was released, but their participation in the original version is still a likely possibility.
Buster Keaton's second talking picture at MGM. When Keaton moved to the studio, he lost most of his creative control over his films. This film was partly inspired by Keaton's own experiences in World War I. According to a biography of Keaton, he thought that this was the best of the films he made at MGM.
This film's earliest documented telecast took place in New York City Sunday 6 April 1958 on WCBS (Channel 2).