The Guns of Loos
1928 film by Sinclair Hill
The Guns of Loos is a 1928 British sound war film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Henry Victor, Madeleine Carroll, and Bobby Howes. The film was given a limited release as a silent film before being converted into a sound film late in 1928. While the sound version of the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. Like the majority of films from the early sound era, this film was made available in a silent version for theatres that had not yet converted to sound.
Plot
A blind veteran of the First World War returns home to run his family's industrial empire.
Cast
Music
The film featured a theme song entitled “If You’d but Say You Care” which was composed by Arthur Crocker and Harry Major.
Production background
Carroll was selected for the role from 150 applicants to play her role. It was her first film role and helped launch her career.
Daniel Laidlaw, an army piper who won the Victoria Cross while rallying his company at the 1915 Battle of Loos, plays himself.
Score
In 2011, sheet music for Richard Howgill's score, meant to be performed live for the silent version of the film, was rediscovered in Birmingham Central Library.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Guns of Loos” is 1928 film by Sinclair Hill. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Guns, Loos and film, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1928 film by Sinclair Hill” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7738531. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1928, 1915 and 2011.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Guns of Loos”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Guns of Loos primary sources, The Guns of Loos archive and Guns research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Guns of Loos”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Guns of Loos” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.