The roster of war-related movies continues on TCM’s Memorial Day weekend tribute, and today Andy Griffith stars in one of the lightest of them. This 1958 comedy, based on the stage play in which Griffith became a Broadway star as country bumpkin and recent military inductee Will Stockdale, led almost directly to The Andy Griffith Show – and even features, as one of the supporting players, future Mayberry co-star Don Knotts. It also serves as a basic blueprint for what eventually became a successful Andy Griffith Show spinoff, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. – starring Jim Nabors in a role not far from what Griffith plays here.