Warner Brothers botched the distribution of this movie.Lewis made a movie that was more adult and topical in light of the times.The movie was more plot driven then many of his other directorial efforts.Lewis makes great use of the art of verbal humor,the scene of Byers trying to learn German from a phonograph record.He fractures and mocks the instructor and the sound of the German language.The scene of Byers/Kesselring's meeting with Hitler is one of Lewis's great masterworks of verbal comedy.Byers in disguise at a German checkpoint double talks the guard,then Byers/Kesselring gets the guard to hand him the password and then gives him the password back.Byers great line at the beginning of the movie that "every man has a right to be killed fighting for his country" is pure gold in the light of Vietnam.The comedy gems in the second half of this movie are fast and furious.I think it is the most verbal driven and more adult in it's comic pacing than most lewis vehicles.I think Lewis was going in new directions.WB killed any such future which we can only guess at seeing it all but derailed his career.
