The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)

I'll tell you why so serious

I wanted to but couldn't!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

At first, I hated this movie. I almost turned it off, but there stood David Niven, in a white captain's uniform and in Technicolor. I kept watching. By the end of the movie, I loved it! Thank goodness for David Niven in a white captain's uniform in Technicolor.The entire movie is interspersed with real WW2 footage and promotional films to help men enlist. It's a little strange, and to be honest, I could have done without the constant cuts, but if you can get used to it early on, that will help you. Screenwriters Phillip Rock and Hal Dresner must have wanted the entire film to feel satirical, but I think it would have been even better without the stock footage. Now to the plot: Alan Alda, Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter, and Manu Tupou are shipwrecked on a deserted island during WW2. They come across an abandoned, wrecked ship, but quickly find that it's not quite abandoned! David Niven, the ship's captain, is still aboard, drinking, making whimsical remarks no one seems to understand, and far from anxious to help with the war effort. But together, and with a random appearance by Faye Dunaway, they patch up the boat and try to help fight the Japanese. Without David Niven's character, the movie would be terrible. And without David Niven cast in the role, it would have devolved into a silly 70s comedy with no class or charm. Everything funny and lovely in the film is due to The Niv's splendid comic timing and suaveness. After watching this film, I dare you not to wish he'd been cast in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. He's infinitely more likable than Rex Harrison. For that matter, why wasn't he cast in My Fair Lady? Well, I guess that's an issue for another time. For now, if you'd like a silly war comedy, give The Extraordinary Seamen a try.

I am amazed that a talents like David Niven and Faye Dunaway signed on to act in this turkey. It is just BAD in every way. Mickey Rooney is the only redeeming factor at all, hence the 1 star. Alan Alda, in my opinion, has never been more than mediocre as an actor. He is to one dimensional. Mix that with a bad story and you just have a bad, bad movie. Shame on your John Frankenheimer. I am surprised you signed on for this movie too.

This film isn't as dire as the one-star reviews claim. That said, it isn't very good either. It's just...odd and doesn't really go anywhere.David Niven is his urbane, David Niveny self as a sort of British version of The Flying Dutchman who has to redeem himself through an act of war-time valor instead of an act of love. Alan Alda is Alan Alda. Faye Dunaway is the girl with moxie (sporting 1960's hair-dos during WW2). Mickey Rooney has very little to do. The conceit of inserting old newsreel footage into the film didn't bother me, I thought the clips were interesting.I did learn two things while watching this;1) I had forgotten the difference between flotsam and jetsam and Faye Dunaway was nice enough to explain it.2) Before Milton Bradley released Battleship as a plastic board game, you could apparently play it on graph paper.Something more interesting could have been done with Niven's character and the whole concept. With a better script this could've been a pretty good film.

This absolutely absurd movie was supposedly intended as a message against the War in Vietnam, which was then on the wake. It tried hard to convey the good, old message that any war, including WWII, was as wasteful as stupid. Alan Alda plays a kind of pre-Hawkeye of "MASH" fame, while David Niven is a loony ghost who believes in duty and honor. Decades after the Allies saved the world for the rest of us ungrateful, it became OK for MGM to poke fun at those clumsy Colonel Blimps. Somehow, the POlish Corridor, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor and the germ warfare experiments conducted in Manchuria by the Japanese became forgotten by the director who had magnificently brought us "The Manchurian candidate", "The train" and so forth. I especially loath the chess game, at the ending. After WWII had taken perhaps 50 million lives, opposing admirals sat down for a game of chess! How would all those buddies who never came home before 1945 have seen this movie? We don't deserve it, Mr. Frankenheimer.