McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force

A rainy, dreary Thursday evening on the shores of Silver lake Camp Ma-Ho-Ge was the scene. After dinner the evening activity was a movie shown in the recreation hall. Mchale's Navy Joins the Airforce in color. My first glimpse of the sitcom in glorious color. The movie begins with a sabotaged PT boat belonging to the bombastic Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter (Bob Hastings). His commanding officer and foil in chief Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) takes over Mchale's Pt 73 boat and travels to Australia with Mchale's crew complete with most of the regulars from the sit-com. Tim Conway as Ensign Parker. But the movie has an empty feel about it due to McHale's Absence. Uniform switching and mistaken identity are the premise here with Ted Bessel warming up his acting skills for his future co-starring role in That Girl. If your a huge fan of the series how was it possible to have a movie without it's star Ernest Borgnine? During the whole movie you would wonder or hope that Ernie at least would make a cameo in this slow moving,frustrating and down right dull picture. Watching Flynn belittle Conway was hard to watch. Abbott and Costello they were NOT! Ted Bessel's character doesn't even fill the void in this bomb. Prior to his death I met Ernie at a book signing in New York City and he told me it was one of the greatest honors to have your character's name in a title and not be present. Ernie was in the California desert working on another film called THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX at the time of this production. A Jeep falling out of an airplane couldn't save this lemon.

Ernest Borgnine was off making The Flight Of the Phoenix when this picture was made. It's a very good film. I highly recommend it.

I was wondering why the great Carl Ballantine didn't make the cast either. He's the actor who played Gruber in the series and the first film.

I had forgotten how awful the movie actually was until both McHale's Navy films ran in tandem on the satellite the other night. I saw both of these films as a child and they were basically long versions of the TV show. The first one is the better.

Tim Conway's physical humor is the only thing that keeps this movie afloat. He did much better stuff as part of the Carol Burnett Show later on.

They made two theatrical movies with the cast of the original series with one notable exception -- this one didn't have McHale and thus surrounds Binghamton and Parker -- with the usual shtick. There are three funny scenes and the rest of it rambles on interminably. If you like the series, you will find this bearable but are better off renting a tape with episodes from the actual series. Still, this is better than the hideous 1997 remake.

The title of the comment about says it all. Even though there is a good comedic cast in this movie and some amusing moments, I think they were a bit desperate to try to sell this without Ernest Borgnine being in it.

On the other hand, you do get to see Tim Conway, and early looks at Gavin MacLeod and Bob Hoskins. Sadly, although he was in a lot of TV and film I watched in the 60s, I just never could warm up to Joe Flynn's single character persona. Of course, he was always the foil, so you weren't meeant to warm up to him. Still, other notable character foils managed to do so without being quite as irritating. (Ted Baxter in Mary Tyler Moore, or Richard Deacon in The Dick Van Dyke Show, as examples).

I very much enjoyed this film, but understood going in that I was going to be immersed in silly physical gags, imponderably head- scratching plot twists, and rear-projection "outdoor" scenes. And I got all of them, in barrels. Even without McHale (Borgnine was filming "Flight of the Phoenix") it is a worthwhile creative endeavor.

Tim Conway plays Navy Ensign Parker who must disguise himself to escape from a sticky situation -- unfortunately (one would think) for him, the uniform with which he absconded belongs to the son of a 4-star general. Mistaken for the misplaced general's son, Parker constantly finds himself in situations for which his incompetence ill-prepares him, and yet he not only succeeds (incredibly, but consistent with the show's expectations) but does so while battling the nervous stresses added by the continual presence of Capt. Binghamton.

If you are a fan of the show (or of comedies of this silly sort), then you will enjoy this, which is actually an elevation from the average episode of the later couple years of the series.

If you desire "Philadelphia Story" sophistication, or "Bringing up Baby" is the peak of your tolerance for sight gags, then this is not your cup of tea.

It was definitely my cup of tea.