A steady stream of wacky war comedies began in the late 1950s - "Mister Roberts," "Operation Petticoat," "Wackiest Ship in the Army, " "Ensign Pulver" "No Time for Sergeants," "Don't Go Near the Water" & "The Teahouse of the August Moon" as well as TV sitcoms "Sgt. Bilko," "Hennessy" and "McHale's Navy," culminating in
the satiric/comedic message of "M*A*S*H". This film does not truly rank among them. Two companies - one of Italian soldiers, one American - find themselves wanting to sit out the end of WWII in a small, welcoming Sicilian village. But they'll have to keep their naive, by-the-book, supposedly-in-charge American Captain (Shawn) fooled and distracted by an Italian beauty - and also fool both the American and German armies - to pull it off. Luckily, fools abound. The cake has all the right ingredients stirred into the batter: production and storyline from Blake Edwards ("The Pink Panther," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Days of Wine and Roses"), co-stars Carroll O'Connor (aka Archie Bunker) and Henry Morgan (aka M*A*S*H's Colonel Potter), screenwriting from William Peter Blatty ("The Exorcist"), score/song from Henry Mancini, strong supporting talents, and Panavision icing. Still, somehow, it just doesn't bake up all that well. What's glaringly absent from this film - and NOT missing from those other war comedies - is sly/clever/witty dialogue. Rather this film over-relies on mediocre situational comedy and shtick: Shawn cross-dressing a la "Some Like It Hot," Morgan lost in a maze of catacombs, drunken brawling, nursing the hungover, quarreling/shouting in Italian, a German officer dead in flagrante delicto, and so forth. Another shortcoming is Shawn's miscasting. He's simply not strong enough to overcome the weak banter, leaving James Coburn, as his scheming Lieutenant, standing alone in the battlefield to try to deliver most of the comedic heavy lifting. RECOMMENDATION: Die-hard fans of classic 50s/60s war comedies probably won't be able to resist, but lowered expectations are well advised.
October 24, 2010
