Powder Town

Powder Town is a 1942 comedy about an eccentric scientist thrust into danger and romance. Max Brand worked on the screenplay and published a novelisation under his own name.

Accommodations are limited so the munitions factory puts Pennant in a boarding house where he is the only male sharing with five entertainers who work at a local casino run by gangsters. The rambuctious and physically imposing Jeems OShea, head of the powder monkeys at the factory, and his sycophant Billy arrive at the house to visit his girlfriend Dolly. Jeems plays rough with the ladies chasing them around the boarding house and playfully molests them. Only half oblivious to the screaming, Pennant gives a nonchalant punch to Jeems which due to angle and motion of the blow and throws Jeems off balance and tumbling down the stairwell where he is knocked out cold to everyones amazement.When Pennant reports to the plant he formally meets Jeems who at first is surprised that Pennant is not a giant. He attempts to intimidate Pennant who is so absent minded he does not understand the threats. Jeems takes this as extreme nonchalant courage a quality in demand amongst munitions workers. As Pennant refines his skipping shock wave explosives, the head of the plant gives Pennant his own pistol and assigns Jeems to be his bodyguard. ........

Source: Wikipedia