Don't Give Up the Ship (1959) YTS

Reviewed by R T 10 / 10

Coming to Blu-ray & DVD finally

Coming to Blu-ray & DVD finally!

Reviewed by bkkaz 7 / 10

Imagine if Blake Edwards Had Made This

The premise here isn't bad -- the Navy misplaces a destroyer escort and wants to hold somebody accountable, so they go after the nebbish-y officer least likely to put up a fight. If you work in a bureaucracy, you know the thinking is accurate. And the film is shot reasonably well. But the results are merely above average and not more, and that's mostly because like so many old movies, this one has a scope and production that belie the sitcom plotting.Jerry Lewis is that officer. Now, when you're a kid, you don't understand why so many adults don't like him. But you get older and realize his constant rubberfaced mugging is neither clever not satisfying. It stands in place of actual performance. Worse, they cast Dina Merrill as his romantic interest. Now, Merrill was always a dry actress, but when paired up with Lewis, she comes across more manly than he does. A lot of potential actresses comes to mind that Lewis could play off of.For instance, Suzanne Pleshette, who was in Lewis' often offensive The Geisha Boy the year before, could provided the motherly grounding necessary to make Lewis tolerable. But Merrill comes across more like an icy cheerleader who just wants to be one of the gang. It's not that she's bad -- because she's not -- but just that she's not particularly good.There are some odd moments in the film, too, which doesn't often fit the tone. For instance, when Lewis' character is playing with "worry balls," is it supposed to parodying The Caine Mutiny? If so, the scene never does anything else with it. When he dives headfirst into the ocean bottom and later gets attacked by an octopus, it's slapstick to the point of being cartoonish. Yet, the bits about WW2 seem more melodramatic and not a little bit racist.There are obvious comparisons of this movie to Blake Edwards' Operation Petticoat, a far superior film. If Blake Edwards had done this one, the script no doubt would have been tighter, but it also would be hard to imagine a craftsman like Edwards putting up with the sophomoric haminess of Jerry Lewis. After all, he worked with the great Peter Sellers.

Reviewed by ztpbrmhw 5 / 10

Dull-ish uninspired addition to the Lewis filmography

Like the bulk of his black and white films, they tend to be the weaker of Lewis's films, and this is no different.The story, a search for a "lost" Destroyer escort ship is weak at best, and I found the "quest" dull and uninspiring. The journey was quite un-inventive with Lewis simply hamming it up at every moment.There's very little romance or chemistry between his wife Diana Spencer (who went on to a very lackluster career) and Dina Merrill (who had a lustrous career) who seems mis-cast.I really couldn't tell you the best moment of the movie as there were simply a series of shallow sight gags and comic facial expressions.A huge fan of Lewis, sadly I found the movie tedious to watch to the end which itself was anti-climactic.

Don't Give Up the Ship

1959

Comedy

Don't Give Up the Ship

1959

Comedy

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Movie Reviews

Coming to Blu-ray & DVD finally

Imagine if Blake Edwards Had Made This

Dull-ish uninspired addition to the Lewis filmography

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