La marine en folie

I'm a big fan of Bob Hope's movies. Some of his earliest works are superior to even his Road films with old what's his name. By the time this movie came around, you could tell he was running out of material. With a nod from the series, McHale's Navy, he plays a sergeant who just about runs his own military base, but when a state of prohibition hits the island, he takes it upon himself to get beer to his buddies with the help of a Japanese deserter hiding out on the island. Now that the men have beer, they start looking for another male vice: women. With another nod to Paint Your Wagon, they lure several female nurses to an island along with Phyllis Diller who pursues Hope like a love-sick school girl. It's an underestimated comedy as he tries to stay ahead of his superior and love-starved Diller. The movie drags a bit in some places, but I'm sure only die-hard fans of Bob Hope will enjoy it.

By the time Bob Hope got to making The Private Navy of Sgt O'Farrell the comedy well was running a bit dry. Thiw was material that he could have done 20 years before, during the post World War II period.

Somebody must have gotten an idea for this film noticing that in McHale's Navy, Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and the gang had their own personal Japanese prisoner. So a whole film was built around a leftover Japanese soldier on the backwater island that Hope is stationed on. Hope has his own Ensign Parker in Jeffrey Hunter and his own Captain Binghamton in John Myhers.

We've got both Army and Navy personnel here though the Navy seems to be in charge. John Myhers is no Joe Flynn with that officious monotone as Captain Binghamton. And no one would ever say that Jeffrey Hunter had Tim Conway's gift for comedy.

And Hope looks every bit of the 65 years he had under his belt when this film was made. He ought to have been stateside collecting those first Social Security checks issued.

Mako does well as Calvin Coolidge Ishimura an American Japanese who had the misfortune to be visiting relatives in the old country at the time of Pearl Harbor. And Phyllis Diller as the man starved nurse Krauss earns a few laughs.

The film is about Hope's pursuit of a sunken supply ship that was loaded with beer. From what I remember of the army it probably would have been near beer which was all an enlisted man could get on Fort Polk, so I didn't see what the fuss was about. Frank Tashlin the director clearly ripped this one off from the classic British comedy Whiskey Galore.

Joke kind of fell flat as the beer probably was.

Most of Bob Hopes best films were made in the 1930s and 40s. Many of his later movies, to put it charitably, looked like he was just going through the motions...at best. Because of this, I had pretty low expectations of this film when I sat down to watch it...especially since he is 65 and is playing a sergeant! Were my instincts right? Read on...

Sgt. O'Farrell is stationed on a small, out of the way island in the Pacific during WWII. While they don't see any action, they don't see much of anything else, as their supplies have been cut off and they are desperate for some female companionship. Suddenly, a transport plane makes it through and their wish is granted...of sorts. The 'woman' is Nurse Krause...and she's played by Phyllis Diller! As for the rest of the nurses...they're all guys! Inexplicably, Gina Lollobrigida just happens to be there. And, soon beer cans from a sunken supply ship start washing ashore...and suddenly morale improves tremendously. But the Sergeant needs to keep a secret....his partner who is helping him retrieve all the beer is a Japanese soldier (Mako) who has little interest in the war.

So does all this sound very funny? No. And that's the problem. You would expect a Bob Hope film to be a comedy but barely anything even comes close to making you laugh and the biggest jokes(???) are about how ugly Diller is...and that really isn't particularly funny. As a comedy, it stinks...and as a war picture, it's not much either due to the strange plot, overuse of bad stock footage and an almost complete lack of anything exciting. A dud...but amazingly NOT among Hope's very worst films of the era, as he managed to be even more unfunny in films such as "How to Commit Marriage" (1969)....a film about as funny as Ebola.

Really funny plot drives this silly film regarding the boredom faced by soldiers in the Pacific during WWII. After the Japanese torpedo Hope's beer supply, he takes matters into his own hands to improve morale.

His effort to bring women on the island, only gets him male nurses and Phylis Diller. Although the plot drags a bit, and Hope's pranks seem dated, this is still a good flick with lots of harmless laughs. However, if you are politically correct, you will probably be offended.

Arguably Bob Hope's worst comedy (and that includes some heavy competition). Stuck on an island with sailors, Hope's Sgt. O'Farrell dreams aloud of being in a bathtub with a geisha girl "steering his ship." Somebody certainly steered this Hope-hackery over the cliff, as it features Phyllis Diller and Gina Lollobrigida and still can't work up any laughs or excitement. Frank Tashlin is to blame for the lax direction (he also had a hand in the screenplay, though I have no idea why he wanted the credit). Alan Stensvold's cinematography is an eyesore, and Hope has never seemed so square and bland. Where's Bing Crosby when you need him? NO STARS from ****