JB: Going from the Hal Roach features to GREAT GUNS is like watching THE WIZARD OF OZ in reverse - it's a journey from a beautiful fantasy world into one that's grey, dreary, dull and lifeless. Laurel and Hardy are no longer the driving force behind their stories, but are reduced to helping out some tedious male lead work out his petty problems, problems which no audience member in his right mind would possibly care about.      The plot is obviously patterned on Abbott and Costello's smash hit BUCK PRIVATES, from the battles with the Sergeant to the rivalry for the girl right down to the war games that end the picture. This would have been okay had the comedy been on the same par. Abbott and Costello used BUCK PRIVATES as an excuse to trot out some of their most memorable routines - the dice game, "lend me fifty dollars" and the hilarious "Drill" bit where Abbott puts Costello through basic maneuvers. What little comedy there is in GREAT GUNS is second and third rate stuff, the highlight being a repeat of the gag in The Finishing Touch where Stan seems to be carrying both ends of a long plank of wood - and this gag is repeated three times!      But what I really find depressing about GREAT GUNS, besides almost everything, is that it features what has to be Stan Laurel's worst performance ever. It's not his fault - he has spent a decade playing the same character, and in GREAT GUNS, he is "Stanley" in name only. The script calls for him to cackle like a hen whenever Ollie gets hit with a sack of flour or the Sergeant falls off a horse. This is "Stan"? His movements and gestures throughout the movie seem hesitant and unsure, as if he has no idea how to graft his usual mannerisms and business onto a character that is so poorly written. Ollie, on the other hand, does a competent job even with the overwrought dialogue he is handed.      Abbott and Costello's BUCK PRIVATES, released 6 months earlier, is still one of the best army comedies ever made and features classic routines that continue to get laughs today. GREAT GUNS, on the other hand, is not only a poor army comedy, but ranks as one of the worst pictures Stan and Babe ever had their names linked to.      Say, Ollie, I don't think we're at Roach Studios any more.