La guerre en dentelles

Jim Hutton is a fond favorite actor of mine, and at his best he could be quite funny -- his best comic effort in my opinion is in "Who's Minding the Mint?" He teamed up 4 times with Paula Prentiss, mostly due to the fact he was tall enough at 6'5" to tower over the 5'10" young lady. These four films with Hutton were Prentiss' first 4 films of her career. She was also a talented actress adept at comedy - her best comedy role, again in my opinion, was in "Man's Favorite Sport?", alongside Rock Hudson.

Hutton and Prentiss were an attractive couple - she very sexy and long legged, he somewhat gangly and bean-pole thin, but with a great deal of boyish charm and a winsome self-effacing manner. Hutton was groomed to be a new version of Jimmy Stewart, in fact. he stayed youthful enough to successfully play Ellery Queen in a TV series when he was over 40.

With this nice pairing of leading man and lady, and the always funny Jim Backus added to the mix, this should have been an engaging comedy. The fact that it is no better than so-so is not the fault of the actors.

The film, which is based on a novel, is meant to be similar to a number of World War II military service screwball comedies that were released in the late 50's and early 60's. It tries to capture the spirit of "Teahouse of the August Moon" and "Don't Go Near the Water", both starring Glenn Ford, and "Wake Me When It's Over" starring Dick Shawn. However, it never quite makes the grade. The situations that are supposed to funny just don't quite hit home. There is a bit too much reliance on slapstick pratfalls that you can see coming a mile away, and a couple of scenes with good humor potential are wasted by sub-par dialog.

But, the cast is gamely trying their best and the great chemistry between Prentiss and Hutton comes through in some (but not all) of their scenes together. This movie is a nice time-killer, but it was not nearly as good as I had hoped.

After the hilarious cartoon-accompanying theme song plays during the opening credits, this movie goes downhill. It's hard to believe, since the song's not that great, but it's true. So unless you really love the pairing of Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss, you can skip this one.

Jim stars as a soldier who yearns to see action but is stuck behind a desk in Honolulu. When he gets transferred to the South Pacific, he hopes he'll have more of an adventure, but it's not exactly the case. The Japanese have surrendered months earlier, and there are no battles, interrogations, or dangerous missions. The most action he sees is the random run-ins with Paula, a girl he'd like to get to know if she'd stay in one place long enough.

There is one Japanese man on the island who still fights the Americans, though: Yuki Shimoda. Yuki's way of exacting revenge on his conquerors is to steal food from the mess hall, so even when Jim finds out he has an enemy, it's not exactly a dangerous one. With some slapstick, sex jokes, and silly situations, all in the style of 1962, it's easy to see that this movie doesn't really stand the test of time very well.

MGM had several fine players under exclusive contract in the l960's: George Peppard, Richard Chamberlain, Yvette Mimieux and Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss. This film is one of the 4 Pairings that MGM made with Hutton and Prentiss and is my favorite film of that team and one of my favorite comedies of the l960's. Great movie teams have magic: Loy and Powell, Tracy and Hepburn, Lemmon and Matthau, and for sure Hutton and Prentiss. Hutton conveyed a manly comedic skill set and Prentiss from San Antonio a gorgeous tall Texan with a sexy voice. Richard Thorpe moves the action skillfully and so what most of the movie seems to have been filmed on the MGM back lot, it is a Fun film with all the top notch MGM production values and special effects. This film is so enjoyable one wonders why MGM let them stop filming as a Team after this film. They were announced for a comedy And Now To Bed about a playboy played by Hutton and an interior decorator played by Prentiss but both stars passed on that film. Too bad. One never tires of these two professionals. Fine support from a cast of well known character actors.

I recommend this movie

This is the final of four consecutive films Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss made together in the early 60's. It is at times a trifle insensitive towards the Japanese, but that's about the worst thing you can say about this otherwise pleasant film. Trivia: Hutton's diminutive Nisei sidekick Sgt Tada, played by Yoshio Yoda, became "Fuji" in McHale's Navy.

Hutton, as usual plays the conniving but good-hearted Hutton character, and Prentiss--though described as "lanky" and "Miss High-Pockets"--is drop-dead gorgeous, even in G.I. Beige. She's just happy that the war transformed her "from a tall girl into a short commodity." This may be the last film which the producers felt compelled to write in some reference to Prentiss' Amazonian proportions.

Hutton, an intelligence officer, is sent to an occupied Pacific Islands to capture an inconsequential Japanese pilferer, and in due time, Prentiss shows up.

A talented collection of familiar character and comedic actors rounds out the cast.

Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss are cute and have good timing in their comedic delivery and all, but mostly this is a film searching for laughs and only rarely finding them. The pair get stationed on an American-occupied island during WWII with the task of looking for a Japanese holdout who has been pilfering supplies. It's light fare to say the least, but helped considerably by their presence. I have to say, it was also nice to see the representations of Japanese and Japanese-Americans with few stereotypes. One serviceman (Yoshio Yoda) is a ladies man, counter to the usual emasculation, and the holdout (Yuki Shimoda) kicks Hutton's ass for awhile upon being discovered. Plus, we get Miyoshi Umeki singing "How About You?" late in the film, which was just lovely. I only wish the story and the humor could have been better, or that the double entendre in the film's title could have led to a little more sizzle. As it is, it's cute, but not terribly exciting.