Il capitano di lungo... sorso

What seems like a good idea and with a very talented cast and good timing (Faye Dunaway was a huge star after Bonnie and Clyde) this appalling waste of everything has not improved with 25 years of many equally bad films becoming the norm. No wonder poor old MGM was dying. I would like to know the budget because it looks reasonably low, given most of the 'action' is aboard Niven's leaky old boat. I saw this film in 1969 in Sydney at MGM's own Liberty Theatre and even then as a 15 year old I thought it pretty bad. Seeing it again last night I know how and why it is a sad waste. It even commits the major cardinal sin of showing stock footage of the old tub 'sinking' at the climax of the film...NOT newsreel footage of WW2 which is splattered throughout, but obviously just cheap tinted crap of some other bow going down. MGM did this before with THE LAST VOYAGE, inserting stock at a crucial moment, infuriating and cheating everyone watching, and I was equally irritated with it happening here. Alan Alda was a surprise, as I had forgotten he was in this film and often photographed here quite like Elvis...don't laugh, it struck me several times that if Elvis had an acting male relative the same age he would look a lot like like Alan Alda in this film.

I can't recommend this movie however to get a better perspective I do recommend to one and all to read Alan Alda's comments regarding this disaster of a movie in his book, (NEVER HAVE YOUR DOG STUFFED and other things I've learned). In the chapter titled Yes to Everything he describes the chaos of making this movie and sums up by saying: "We finished the picture, and it was released directly into obscurity. I've heard that it played on an airplane over Pittsburgh, and I imagined people strapping on parachutes and jumping to get away from it." That last line made me laugh out loud, in fact many lines in this book will have you laughing aloud and enjoying his view on the world.

This movie has all the elements of a great movie, with a suspense ending. The Ever-Lasting Bottle of Scotch, was a wonderful touch and I for one would love to have a bottle just like that. This movie, though far-fetched, was a wonderful imaginative film, and usually the type that had not only comedy, imagination, but great acting as well. It looked like they were all having fun in the making of it, and I found it hilarious while watching it in Calgary Alta .

Faye Dunaway may be many things, but "fun" rarely comes to mind. She was seductively clever in Richard Lester's "Musketeers" pictures, she had a squirrelly fashionista presence in "The Thomas Crown Affair", and she projected a loose, warm personality in "Don Juan DeMarco". Here, in her younger years, she's a cool blonde shiver, calculating and aloof. The film, barely released by MGM, involves a group of military personnel circa World War II who are stranded on an island in the Pacific, coming upon a mystical sea captain and his creaky barge. Separated--for no apparent reason--into SIX acts, and interspersed with actual newsreel footage from the period, one has to assume the final cut was taken out of director John Frankenheimer's hands. Most of the actors look positively baffled. As for the placid Ms. Dunaway, she remains shockingly unruffled by the inane plot and the silly dialogue. NO STARS from ****

The Extraordinary Seaman finds David Niven once again carrying the burden of a really botched film concept with his extraordinary charm. No actor was ever asked to work with less material than Niven did in his whole career.

The film is best described as a combination of The Ghost And Mrs. Muir, The Canterville Ghost and The African Queen all taking place in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Four American seaman Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter, Mana Tupou and their Lieutanant Alan Alda are on a life raft after their ship was sunk. They drift to a small island in the Phillipines and find a beached craft from the previous war with its captain David Niven who looks positively immaculate in his dress whites from the British Navy considering the heat and humidity of the tropics.

With a battery borrowed from plantation owner Faye Dunaway who would like some transport to Australia for her efforts, the American sailors set sail with Niven who will take them, providing he gets the opportunity to sink a Japanese warship. Trust me, Niven's got some really good reasons for wanting this so badly.

This dud of a film is a surprise coming from someone like John Frankenheimer who did such things as Birdman Of Alcatraz, The Train, Grand Prix, and Seven Days In May to name a few. Frankenheimer comes up so short in The Extraordinary Seaman as compared to those masterpieces and others. The situations are forced and labored and the comedy falls flat. Not enough use was made of Mickey Rooney and Jack Carter, both of them extraordinarily funny people.

But there's nothing extraordinary about The Extraordinary Seaman.