La marine est dans le lac

I was able to see this movie years after my uncle told me about his ship with the steam engines. I believe this was the first movie for a few of the cast who later became well known names. The ship was nicknamed the "Tea Kettle" and I believe the crew did have a morale problem. The cast, at least, made a huge effort to entertain.

This is a typical Gary Cooper vehicle where he gets placed in a sudden leadership role and has to rally the men who serve him. It's worked well in his other films and does so here. What I really enjoyed is all the actors who would later go on to enjoy their own careers like Eddie Arnold, Charles Bronson, Jack Webb, and even Lee Marvin. A great look at some of the less glorious aspects of navy service during WWII. So many films showcase the expertise or the hardened battle-weary sailors, but this movie showed how many sailors found themselves to be "90 day wonders", meaning they were pulled out from being civilians and trained quickly to serve. This movie showed that the average Joe (and Jill) truly did his or her part in winning the war.

Today,13 June 2007, was my first viewing of the movie and I was really excited since I never knew that it had been made. The PC476 was in the Pacific from Guadalcanal to Australia to New Guinea to Leyte in the Philippines. I was Signalman 3rd Class and worked on top with the signal lamps. Our PC had two GM 1600HP diesel engines and we also had equipment to desalinate water which just barely sufficient to meet our daily needs except for showers. I spent two years aboard from Oct 1943 to Oct 1945. I really enjoyed the movie and it did capture the essence of the required intimacy of the 60 enlisted and 5 officer crew on a vehicle 173 feet long and 21 feet wide at the beam.

It's noted in the Citadel Film Series book, the Films Of Gary Cooper that You're In The Navy Now was his first film for 20th Century Fox. It did fail to mention that this was the sixth of seven films that Cooper made with director Henry Hathaway. This was the only one of those seven that could be classified as a comedy.

Lieutenant Gary Cooper has just been activated from reserve status due to the war that broke out after Pearl Harbor. The Navy give him one interesting first command at sea. The Navy is experimenting with steam power as an alternative to diesel on the theory that there is in fact an infinite supply of water and oil might become scarce.

So Cooper gets an assignment on an experimental steam power PT Boat and he's to test it to see if it's feasible. But what the Navy also does is give him an entirely green crew of both officers and enlisted men. The only exception is boatswain Millard Mitchell.

This is quite a recipe for disaster and the laughs that would accompany those disasters. But Cooper and his crew prove surprisingly resilient in overcoming obstacles.

It's ironic that a film about a green crew for a Naval ship should also prove to be the debut film of several noted players as well. Lee Marvin, Harvey Lembeck, Charles Bronson, and Jack Warden all made their feature film debuts in You're In The Navy Now as sailors on the USS Teakettle as the men call their steam powered vessel.

With all the problems he has Coop is lucky enough to have married Jane Greer who is also in the WAVES and working as a secretary for one of the port big shots in John McIntire. She's provides the usual wifely support and has his back when things go wrong on the Teakettle as they inevitably do.

You're In The Navy Now is far from one of Cooper's major films nor is it the best of his collaborations with Henry Hathaway. But it's a pleasant enough comedy about a shakedown cruise which was also a shakedown film for a lot of debuting players.

I wish this movie was on tape so I could get a copy to enjoy again. This was the first movie that I saw with one of my favorite actors. Charles Bronson although he was listed by his real name (Charles Buchinski) in the movie. I also just found out that Lee Marvin was also in this movie.