CARRY ON SERGEANT BY: BRUCE BAIRNSFATHER

Carry On, Sergeant! is a 1928 Canadian World War I drama, and is considered to be one of the earliest Canadian feature-length motion pictures. Costing half-a-million to make, it certainly was the most expensive.

Carry On, Sergeant! is the story of four friends who join the army to fight in the First World War. After years of trench warfare, one of the men (Hugh Buckler) meets a French woman (Louise Cardi) working the taverns. He sleeps with her, but is overcome with guilt and is later killed in battle. His wife (Nancy Ann Hargreaves) back home believes he died a hero and remembers him with love. This sentimental film, which doesn't back away from the unpleasant – it was harshly criticized for the affair between a Canadian soldier and a 'prostitute' – was released at the end of the silent era and after only a brief theatrical run it disappeared from view. It was revived in the 1970's when the National Archives of Canada struck a new print.^[1][2]