In my childhood, TV was something magical. Magic was dispensed in doses and on schedule. Films for children were specially celebrated in the TV program and each time it was a meeting with a wonderful, some kind of adventure. Going to the cinema was even cooler, there was a special warmth in my soul from what I saw and it lasted for a long time. At the Rodina cinema in the city kindergarten, I watched Captain Grant’s Children with Isaac Dunaevsky’s songs “Sing Us a Merry Wind Song” and “Once upon a Time There was a brave captain.” The film was black and white and terribly interesting. However, even films about such topics as war were once able to shoot, abstracting from all the horror that it carried. An example of this is the movie “Alexander the Little”, I watched it at the Kurgan cinema, or “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” on TV with thin Oleg Dahl. There was once an industry of films for children. And people were generally kinder. I can’t figure out when we took a wrong turn? And why things have changed so much.
When Ricky Nelson sings, all the girls are smitten.
So, the film “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” (The Wackiest Ship in the Army, 1960) by Richard Murphy from the same category of films for children, despite the fact that it is about the war. And although it seems to be filmed for adults, it is, in fact, for all ages, and will also be interesting for young gentlemen. And like all good war films, it is essentially anti–war – violence and battles are not depicted, and on the contrary, it is explicitly stated that “war is a nasty thing.” This is not a comedy in the spirit of “Hotheads” at all, but an adventure film with rather subtle, not at all soldier-like dialogues, and caricatured jokes like random head knocks on all objects.
Here we have Jack Lemmon, known to all viewers of the USSR for the film “Only Girls in Jazz” with the beloved actress of Secretary General Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, a former front-line soldier, who was delighted with Marilyn in the original uncut film version and from the literal translation of the title of the film “Some like it hot.” Having played the role of Jerry-Daphne there a year earlier, Lemmon is a moderately serious lieutenant Rip Crandall, a grated lemon pretzel, a former yachtsman who does not want to take command of the yacht “Trouble” Echo with hapless poor sailors who have never sailed at sea. To persuade him to this appointment, the headquarters has to use an ingenious scheme.
Coffee with an egg (or on eggs)? The recipe was taken too literally...
Lemmon’s company in the film is Ricky Nelson, the golden boy of rock and roll, he’s the reason I wanted to watch this movie. His Ensign Tommy Hanson is handsome and modest, moreover, he is fit, respects his elders and is full of calm boyish enthusiasm with a overriding sense of duty. And he also performs a song at the Officers’ club, the jazz standard “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?” And one song is enough here (it will be released on the Rick is 21 album a few months after the film). In one of the modern films, military personnel at a party are already annealing “Great Balls Of Fire” and behaving much more cheekily.
- Be careful! You are in the wine field! "Some kind of vi."..
Hanson knows yachting and once in peacetime ruined Crandell’s competition. However, the “seasoned sailor and novice” scheme here is not so pretentious, and not comedic in the usual scenario when a young man commits idiotic antics, and a seasoned man sighs and corrects his mistakes, no, rather Tommy is looking forward to correcting himself by working under the guidance of his captain and gaining experience. The main characters are given a secret task – to get from point A to point B, and then deliver the Australian ally, coastal observer Patterson (Australian actor Chips Rafferty) to point C to monitor the Japanese flotilla. Ahead of them is a dangerous regatta in the South Pacific Ocean from Australia to New Guinea.
Coastwatcher: "War is a nasty thing!"
Despite the absence of any special effects, the mise en scene of underwater filming, where our yacht is shown, looks in one breath. Like the whole movie, which does not let you come off, forcing you to laugh at sudden jokes and empathize with the characters. They are all real men there, no one deliberately breaks the comedy. Of the memorable characters, one can note Jack’s assistant, as well as the hapless cook, who cannot brew normal coffee, the radio mechanic Sparks and the sailor Josh. For the sake of a special task, everyone rallies and becomes skillful sailors. The yacht “USS Echo” really existed and was used in the American South Pacific campaign in 1942-1944. The film is based on real events, the movie is about a brave captain. Only the brave conquer the seas.
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