McHale's Navy

It's lots of fun, especially if you were a fan of the 1960's TV series which for the most part outside of the very bad 1997 remake has been forgotten. Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine slammed by going to TV sitcoms as McHale, the My. Commander who somehow manages to get out of any and all serious missions. He's still a nightmare for Captain Joe Flynn who is desperately trying to find a way to get him reassigned. In this big screen theatrical movie, Borgnine becomes involved with attempts to enter a horse race with a thoroughbred he finds in the middle of the Pacific Islands and desperately seeks to hide the horse from plan before he and his gang head out to the races. There's lots of silliness ahead in this amusing but often juvenal comedy that has a lot of laughs out loud moments but a few that are real groaners. Tim Conway as Borgnine's sidekick and Bob Hastings as Flynn's right hand man provide good support (or in Hastings' case a humorous lack of support), and blowsy Jean Willes gets laughs as the owner of a bar that wants to get Borgnine down the aisle, something that makes no sense to me. It's all in good fun with Borgnine a likable neer do well, and pretty scenery to boot. Obviously not a challenge for the brain but good for fixing a few blues.

It's 1943 somewhere in the South Pacific and the misadventures of PT73. Skipper McHale (Ernest Borgnine) delivers money to an isolated orphanage. He returns to find his men have expanded the operation without his approval. They get on the wrong side of a horse race and owes everybody about $2k. Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) in a plane tries to catch McHale but incompetent Ensign Charles Parker (Tim Conway) shoots him down thinking it's the Japs. It's a lot of silly slapstick comedy. I never saw the TV show. If this is any guide, it's a pretty low grade sitcom. The show is in black and white while this is in sharp bright colors. It could be funny in half hour spurts but it feels tiresome after awhile. It does allow Conway to riff on extended jokes. However, even he feels a bit too extended just like the movie. It is what it is and what one expects.

McHale's Navy was, most famously a TV series, and it shows in this movie. This movie has that sitcom feel: cram as many laughter attempts into as short a time as possible, with a random plot and no character development. Plus the humour is generally quite juvenile. This all doesn't lend itself well to the longer format.

I do enjoy this movie.. It's silly and far better than the remake that was made in the 1990's. Think I've seen this 50 times or more... When I was a child, the movie and show were on constantly in syndication.. Back in the day of this being made, it was very popular to make comedy war movies, like this one and "Operation Peticoat"... Recently just seeing this movie again on AMC, I was stunned to find out that Bob Hope was actually offered the title role for this, but refused it... You would have thought that he would have taken it on being that he basically accepted so many movie parts to keep his name in circulation.. *LOL*

Joe Flynn, gone too soon . . . the outtakes of the TV show prove he was funnier "off screen" than on. Ernest Borgnione, Tim Conway and the rest of the gang remind me of Peanuts at sea (Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, etc. at sea). Just as Charlie Brown and Linus hang-out on the ledge of the stone wall in the comic strip--the crazy gang of Mchale's Navy do the same. And the movie is in color! Its two hours (about) of comedy that is unmatched by this generation. Mchale's navy now would be just a bunch of put-down humor and Adam sandler jokes. It was funny when Tim Conway ventures near the occupied hut and funnier when we see what runs out on a Japanese Island in the pacific. Boy oh Boy . . . .Mchale's Navy . . . the show, the movie there's not much difference except the color . . . thanks guys for a wonderful time. Mchale's Navy forever!!! the movie and the show . . . Joe Flynn singing with the boys in the outtake is a must see!!!!! Thanks again: a real laugh riot -everytime

Thanks in large part to Joe Flynn, this movie was by far the funniest movie I have ever seen in my life! During the scene when Captain Binghampton was in a jeep going down a hill and he ended up being thrown out of the jeep and onto a buffet table, I was laughing so hard and long that I ended up rolling in the aisle for a half hour. I was laughing about the movie for days after that! Joe Flynn a.k.a. Jolly Wally Binghampton was the most underrated performer of all time, and as a comedian he beats everyone. He was a true giant of the industry, and it is a shame he was not on the screen more. Tim Conway and Ernest Borgnine were very good, too, and it is amazing that in real life you would never picture Tim Conway in the role of a dim witted clown.

After recently trashing the hideous 1997 remake, I felt it appropriate to review the film that spawned perhaps the worst remake of any movie or series in the history of cinema. Actually, Mchale's Navy (the original, mind you) is more like a ninety minute episode of the TV series. It doesn't matter. If you're a fan of the series, it's well worth the time. Tim Conway as klutzy Ensign Parker and Joe Flynn as Captain "I could just scream" Binghampton are every bit as hilarious here as in the TV series. All the more reason to avoid the 1997 dog turd starring Tom Arnold and Dean Stockwell. Rating: ****1/2 out of *****

My father didn't watch much TV in the 60's. He didn't even laugh much. Just his personality. When he watched this show, he used to laugh so hard, he'd nearly fall off his chair. Of course I laughed too, since I wasn't used to seeing him laugh. My dad was a WWII US Navy Destroyer veteran stationed in the South Pacific, and his squadron earned 11 battle stars, so they weren't on a luxury cruise. He laughed the hardest at Leadbottom - Binghamton, so I figure he had or knew a CO like Old Leadbottom. Come to think of it, my Dad acted a lot like Binghamton, so maybe he saw some of himself in old Leadbottom. Who knows, he's gone now. I love to watch this show on tape, it gives me a brief connection back to those happy times with my father. I find myself laughing still.

Spawned from the inexplicably popular TV series, this low-rent comedy has the PT-73 Naval crew in hot water when they get involved in horse-racing. What exactly is the comedic charge in seeing Tim Conway continually falling down stairwells or open shafts? Was Ernest Borgnine really having a good time? I wasn't much of a fan of the television show, and this movie made me less of one. Claudine Longet (looking like a wistful daffodil) has a few quick scenes as a French lass who develops a crush on klutzy Conway, but this isn't good nostalgia--it's a schlocky, painfully inept matinée quickie derived from Abbott & Costello and Martin & Lewis, but nowhere near on those levels. * from ****

Moviecut—McHale's Navy