May contain SPOILERS:
I approached Bob Hope's and Phyllis Diller's 3rd and final "epic" with some trepidation. After the mediocre "Eight on the Lam" and the dire "Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number!", I wasn't expecting much. However, I am a huge fan of Gina Lollobrigida(billed here as "Miss Gina Lollobrigida") so I decided to give it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. While no classic and far from great Hope, "The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell" is an amiable, easy-to-take farce in the "McHale's Navy" vein and is Hope's best film from a not-so-great period(1964-1972) in his film career. Basically Hope and his men are fighting WWII in the 1960s, not the 1940s, replete with anachronisms including references to "watching reruns" in the decade before TV was commonplace in most American homes. Anachronistic highlight is the gorgeous 41-year old Miss Lollobrigida showing off her breathtaking figure in a 1968 bikini complete with 1968 makeup and hairdo in a sequence allegedly set in 1941 Waikiki. Interestingly enough, no reference is made to Italy being Japan's and Germany's ally during WWII. Jeffrey Hunter, most famous for his portrayal of Jesus Christ in "King and Kings" shows a surprising strong aptitude for comic ability as a lieutenant-cum-descendant of John Paul Jones with a propensity to seasickness. In one of the film's daffier subplots he keeps having romantic dreams about Miss Diller! The Adam and Eve sequence is a hoot. Mako shines as a Japanese-American named Calvin Coolidge Ishimura who gets mistaken for an Axis soldier. All of the likable nonsense is well directed by former Warner Brothers cartoonist turned comedy director Frank Tashlin("Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", "The Glass Bottom Boat"). In a clever moment, Bob and Gina spoof Burt Lancaster's and Deborah Kerr's "From Here To Eternity" beach love scene 12 years prior to Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty did so in the hit spoof "Airplane!"
Bottom line: Nothing great but pleasant and worth seeing if you're a fan of Hope or Gina. Too bad they didn't make more films together.
Rating: 6 out of 10 or **1/2 out of ****.
Makes a good double feature with either of these Cary Grant WWII Pacific Theater comedies: "Operation Petticoat"(1959) or "Father Goose"(1964).
I approached Bob Hope's and Phyllis Diller's 3rd and final "epic" with some trepidation. After the mediocre "Eight on the Lam" and the dire "Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number!", I wasn't expecting much. However, I am a huge fan of Gina Lollobrigida(billed here as "Miss Gina Lollobrigida") so I decided to give it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. While no classic and far from great Hope, "The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell" is an amiable, easy-to-take farce in the "McHale's Navy" vein and is Hope's best film from a not-so-great period(1964-1972) in his film career. Basically Hope and his men are fighting WWII in the 1960s, not the 1940s, replete with anachronisms including references to "watching reruns" in the decade before TV was commonplace in most American homes. Anachronistic highlight is the gorgeous 41-year old Miss Lollobrigida showing off her breathtaking figure in a 1968 bikini complete with 1968 makeup and hairdo in a sequence allegedly set in 1941 Waikiki. Interestingly enough, no reference is made to Italy being Japan's and Germany's ally during WWII. Jeffrey Hunter, most famous for his portrayal of Jesus Christ in "King and Kings" shows a surprising strong aptitude for comic ability as a lieutenant-cum-descendant of John Paul Jones with a propensity to seasickness. In one of the film's daffier subplots he keeps having romantic dreams about Miss Diller! The Adam and Eve sequence is a hoot. Mako shines as a Japanese-American named Calvin Coolidge Ishimura who gets mistaken for an Axis soldier. All of the likable nonsense is well directed by former Warner Brothers cartoonist turned comedy director Frank Tashlin("Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", "The Glass Bottom Boat"). In a clever moment, Bob and Gina spoof Burt Lancaster's and Deborah Kerr's "From Here To Eternity" beach love scene 12 years prior to Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty did so in the hit spoof "Airplane!"
Bottom line: Nothing great but pleasant and worth seeing if you're a fan of Hope or Gina. Too bad they didn't make more films together.
Rating: 6 out of 10 or **1/2 out of ****.
Makes a good double feature with either of these Cary Grant WWII Pacific Theater comedies: "Operation Petticoat"(1959) or "Father Goose"(1964).