THE WACKIEST SHIP IN THE NAVY

US, 1960, 99 minutes, Colour.
Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson, John Lund, Chips Rafferty, Tom Tully, Warren Berlinger, Mike Kellin, Richard Anderson.
Directed by Richard Murphy.

The Wackiest Ship in the Army is a wacky film about the navy rather than the army. It has a World War Two setting, the war in the Pacific. Jack Lemmon portrays a lieutenant who is appointed in charge of a ship – but its crew is barely functioning well. He has to take over, train the crew if possible, get the ship to an island, drop a watcher who will be able to report on Japanese activity. The film is allegedly based on actual events.

Jack Lemmon who had been something of a disturbance in the navy as Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts, five years later is much more serious as the new lieutenant. There is a mixed cast on board – including Chips Rafferty who is the coast-watcher to be put ashore. Mike Kellin appears as the chief mate.

Kellin was to appear, along with Jack Warden, in a television series in 1965 and 1966 based on this film.

It is sometimes an expected presentation of navy jokes – but with a sense of mission. Director Richard Murphy was more known as a writer. His only other directing job was Three Stripes in the Sun with Aldo Ray in 1955.

1. A satisfactory comedy? War film? How comic, how serious? The humour and irony of the title? The credit sequences and indications? Music?

2. The use of Cinemascope, colour, war locations?

3. The authenticity of the atmosphere of the film, places, the memory of the war by 1960?

4. Comment on the suitability of the styles of American comedy, the knockabout style, situation comedy, dialogue, characters?

5. How important was the serious aspect of the film: World War II, the desperate nature of the mission, the people involved deaths? Heroism for the American involvement in the war? Australia and New Guinea?

6. How well did the film blend the comic and the serious? Its attitude towards war and its presentation of the nobility of war? The limitations of people involved in war? The drawing on heroism?

7. How conventional were the war sequences, the background of Australia and New Guinea, the mission and the use of ships, spies for sighting Japanese movements? The heroism in the latter part of the film, was it conventional war heroism?

8. The focus on Grand1e, as a person unwilling to be involved, tricked? His basic skill, his involvement in the mission? His success? A conventional character for this kind of film? Did Jack Lemmon make him more than the conventional character?

9. The ironic humour of the ship, its look, the difficulties of storm, the men working it with their short training? The irony of the achievement of the ship?

10. Comment on the supporting characters with their seriocomic overtones in war: Hansen, the Chief Sparkes etc? The contribution of the personality of each, the comic heroism during the mission?

11. The contrast with the Commander, Poster, the presiding officer, the girl? Their roles in persuading Grandle to be involved?

12. The film's critique of the stuffiness of Patterson? The self-opiniated hero compared with the comic hero?

13. How enjoyable were the long sequences of training, the details of the voyage the arrival? The build-up to the raid, the, suspense? The voyage and the capture? How valuable as a post-war film?