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 .
