Zafarrancho en el casino

In 1960 the great Steve McQueen starred in one of the greatest films of all time in The Magnificent Seven . Just a year later he made one of of his rare comedy movies in The Honeymoon Machine . Both films couldn't be more different but actually this isn't half as bad as I was expecting.

This is the story of a navy lieutenant , and his civilian friend use a classified computer from a ship to help them break the bank at a Venetian casino.

The reason I wasn't expecting too much from this is , despite McQueen being one of the greatest actors that ever lived he wasn't great a comedy . Or being kinder He wasn't a natural in the genre but this film just goes to show that he did have it in him , thanks mainly to a good cast alongside him and a funny script.

This was first a stage play and you can tell it is but that isn't a bad thing . It has that back and forth , stage farce feel about it and it works quite well on screen .

The persistent joke about Pam not being able to see without her glasses gets about tiresome but that's the only obvious criticism I can think of .

Good performances from Brigid Bazlen , who I've surprisingly not seen in any movie before and Dean Jagger who plays her father , contribute to what was a pleasant ninety minutes .

In an era when the portrayal of the stumbling drunk hadn't become tragic and offensive, this movie has Jack Weston working his versatile magic with just such a role. He creates some moments of real humor.

McQueen gives it a hard try at being comedic and succeeds much of the time with his own style. Dean Jagger is a great foil for all the madcap goings on. For hot rod T-bucket fans there's Norm Grabowski, so called 'father of the T-bucket', working the on-board blinker.

A lightweight, silly comedy not to be viewed as anything else.

Lorenzo Semple's more deftly titled comedy, THE GOLDEN FLEECING, was missing something on Broadway. Even with master comedy director Abe Burrows at the helm and TV "name" Tom Poston in the lead (am I the only one who finds him dull?), it couldn't manage a better booking than the intimate Henry Miller's Theatre nor a run of more than 84 performances (Oct. 15 - Dec. 26, 1959) - ultimately bumped for the hit run of a serious Civil War drama, THE ANDERSONVILLE TRIAL which started 4 days later.

The Broadway run DID get a movie sale for Semple however, and hallelujah! Hollywood knew just how to handle the property. They polished the script, filled the roles with top drawer dramatic and farce players, changed the title to something sort of stupid, but which innocently implied sex (THE HONEYMOON MACHINE) and gave it a "Grade A" CinemaScope production.

Great farces MUST be played absolutely straight or they fall flat, and Dean Jagger's Admiral Fitch is a perfect example: he wraps up all the loose ends in a deadpan final confrontation even funnier than the "Hello, Daddy" court room scene in Streisand's hilarious WHAT'S UP DOC. The perfectly executed physical comedy of Jack Weston's drunken ballet on a hotel ledge is still funny (if possibly non-PC with the passing years), but probably the least funny part of this carefully scripted comedy caper film.

Steve McQueen, exuding more sex appeal than is normally on display in this sort of boulevard comedy, is a triumph his only unalloyed comedy role, showing a masterful gift for comic timing and farce delivery that makes it tragic he didn't find the genre to his taste despite the good notices he deserved and got. He's matched every step of the way by his fellow conspirators - especially Jim Hutton as the computer genius in a scam to use a Navy computer (the "machine" of the title) to perfect a "system" to break the bank at the Venice casino.

Naturally, romance (Paula Prentiss is a standout as a diplomat's straying fiancé - blind without her glasses) and other complications (like Cold War paranoia) ensue, and the result is one of those irresistible feel-good films which only gets better with repeated viewing.

There are those who just don't get the "well made" comedy, and since Hollywood rarely makes them anymore (they were a staple in the 1960's), we're not educating the palate for them these days. That's a pity, but for those who still DO enjoy them, this is one of the best. Take a 90 minute vacation on the Mediterranian!

Sure it's a little formulaic, but not deserving of the excoriation which precedes this mini-review. McQueen is just fine in the role, not so much a pure comic character as the fast-talking con-man Lieutenant, rather the sort of the role Tony Curtis used to play. And to keep the record straight, McQueen did other comedies, such as _Soldier in the Rain_, and the semi-comedic _Reivers_.

McQueen comes up with the idea of using a high-speed electronic computer to beat the roulette wheel and enlists Hutton and another sailor into the scheme.

Hutton, as the computer scientist doesn't have much to do, since he can't also play the fast-talking con-man. (And besides, he's a computer scientist!) But he does get to woo Prentiss, who amuses as the beautiful near-sighted heiress who talks to statues.

Weston up on the ledge with the blinker makes for a quite funny interlude as the others have noted.

But McQueen does not deserve the invective heaped upon him by the other reviewers of this film.

An amusing and charming comedy about two American sailors : Steve McQueen , Jack Mullaney and a computer generator scam . The crew aboard the USS Elmira warship is testing the Magnetic Analyzer Computing Synchotron called Max . As navy lieutenant McQueen and Mullaney hook up with computer expertise: Jim Hutton to use his ship's computer to beat the gambling odds at a Venetian Casino . The principal issue of the movie is that the hi-tech computer on board the ship can predict the winning numbers on an Italian roulete wheel based on knowledge of the former winning numbers . But their commander : Dean Jagger, misinterprets the signals and thinks the warship is being attacked . Meanwhile , the Admiral's daughter : Brigid Bazlen falls in love for Steve MacQueen and Jim Hutton finds his old flame : Paula Prentiss about to marry her new boastful boyfriend . First either sex ...and makes nothing but laughter !

Entertaining , attractive , bemusing and agreeable comedy , it is an enjoyable film , fast-paced and the computer was new territory in 1961 . Based on the play The Golden Fleecing written by Lorenzo Semple Jr and script by George Welles . It contains the ordinary premise , a peculiar hold-up , but the novelty this time by winning a fortune using an electronic brain. The main and support cast are pretty good . Steve McQueen again boasts his certain hilarious skills -like he did in The Reivers- what a dab hand could be at comedy genre . However , Steve McQueen hated this film that he considered to be one of his worst . Steve McQueen and Jim Hutton are nice , while their gorgeous partenaires , the young Brigid Bazlen and the treacle-voiced Paula Prentiss are gorgeous . Sympathetic support cast with plenty of notorious secondaries as Dean Jagger in a strange comedy film character , Jack Mullaney, and the usually comical Jack Weston adds immeasurably to the fun , here stealing the show as a drunk sailor.

This zany romp motion picture was professionally directed by Richard Thorpe , though it has some flaws and some very silly comical situations, being a mild hit at the box office, getting profit enough . This filmmaker Richard Thorpe was a veteran Hollywood craftsman who directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres , drama, musical , Western , adventure , Historical, Comedy , such as : "Huckleberry Finn, Night must fall, Above suspicion, Black Hand , Malaya or East of the Rising sun, Vengeance Valley, Prisoner of Zenda, Ivanhoe, Knights of the Round Table, Quentin Durward , Jailhouse Rock, Killers of Kilimanjaro, The Last Challenge" , among others . The filick will appeal to Steve McQueen fans . Rating : 6/10. Passable and acceptable .