loose cannon antedating?

[Jonathan Lighter]

In the 1964 film _Seven Days in May_ (screenplay by Rod Serling), I thought
I heard Kirk Douglas say of an army officer later described as almost a
fascist, "He's kind of a loose cannon."  It's about 15 or 20 minutes into
the movie.

I can't swear that he said it, but that's what it sounded like, and it would
make perfect sense in context.

Nor do I know if the phrase appeared in the 1962 novel by Fletcher Knebel
and Charles W. Bailey II.

If accurate, it would be the earliest appearance of the phrase as a fully
lexicalized item. (The OED's 1946 ex. is still metaphorical.)

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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