User reviews

Despite the producers attempts to make a film with some semblance of a budget and cinemascope and bright, pretty colors, the film just seems to be an extraordinary cheat on all levels. Unlike "M*A*S*H," also from 1969 but from 20th Century Fox, "The Extraordinary Seaman" clearly uses stock newsreels as a cheap crutch and as a substitute for advancing action - and when that wasn't enough, they further padded its meager 80 minute running time by manipulating the footage. The attempt throughout to blur the line between newsreels and the film's own footage is clumsily handled. For contrast, try the way this same line was more deftly and more trippily blurred by Richard Lester in 1967's "How I Won the War" with John Lennon. As others here have observed, the breaking of this film into six named "parts" was a pointless exercise. Hell, it didn't work any better when "Frasier" did it on TV years later, did it? Major comedic talents - in particular Mickey Rooney and Jack Carter - are simply wasted in subservient roles, and are allowed to disappear before the film's ignominious conclusion. The casting of the secondary leads, Alda and Dunaway, was just really strange, considering that neither actor projects any kind of romantic vitality. (I would insert that Alda has clearly never developed as an actor, and from that day to this - and as many have observed - he just plays himself in role after role, and merely runs his lines without adding either depth or nuance to characterizations.) I'd say it was astounding how Paddy Chayefsky used Dunaway's reputation as an on screen ice-bitch to monumental advantage in 1976's "Network," with perhaps the most hilarious sex scene ever filmed: the one with William Holden in which she never stops yammering about work for a second. In "The Extraordinary Seaman," there's no clear reason why her character is even there. In fact, the only actor who projects any warmth or depth is David Niven, who makes it all look easy as befits a grand actor of his caliber. However, the role he makes look easy is itself a stupid cheat - a gimmick role that I feel most people in the audience would have figured out long before Alda's character did, due to their 1960's training with twist-ending TV shows such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits." Niven's ever-refilling bottle is the only decent throwaway gag in the entire proceedings, and thankfully John Frankenheimer displayed the judicious restraint to keep the gag from filling the center of the frame as a hack director might have. Alda's character made sure to point each! and! every! other! facet! of Niven's character's quirks to the audience... several times. Even his attempt at mutiny and his repeated man overboard gags are ineptly handled. As a further "goof," one reaction shot of Alda in full face (Part V or VI) is quite clearly reversed and is as painfully obvious as some shots of William Shatner you find in the miserable last year of "Star Trek" in which the same thing was repeatedly done. And by the way, didn't some of those overturned trees in the run-aground sequence look awfully fake? Before TCM ran this film, I had never even heard of it, and now it's clear I know why. It never should have been made.

The Extraordinary Seaman finds David Niven once again carrying the burden of a really botched film concept with his extraordinary charm. No actor was ever asked to work with less material than Niven did in his whole career.

The film is best described as a combination of The Ghost And Mrs. Muir, The Canterville Ghost and The African Queen all taking place in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Four American seaman Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter, Mana Tupou and their Lieutanant Alan Alda are on a life raft after their ship was sunk. They drift to a small island in the Phillipines and find a beached craft from the previous war with its captain David Niven who looks positively immaculate in his dress whites from the British Navy considering the heat and humidity of the tropics.

With a battery borrowed from plantation owner Faye Dunaway who would like some transport to Australia for her efforts, the American sailors set sail with Niven who will take them, providing he gets the opportunity to sink a Japanese warship. Trust me, Niven's got some really good reasons for wanting this so badly.

This dud of a film is a surprise coming from someone like John Frankenheimer who did such things as Birdman Of Alcatraz, The Train, Grand Prix, and Seven Days In May to name a few. Frankenheimer comes up so short in The Extraordinary Seaman as compared to those masterpieces and others. The situations are forced and labored and the comedy falls flat. Not enough use was made of Mickey Rooney and Jack Carter, both of them extraordinarily funny people.

But there's nothing extraordinary about The Extraordinary Seaman.

John Frankenheimer directed some truly great films in the 1960s, including BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962), THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962), SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964), and THE TRAIN (1964). THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN (1969) is a rare foray into comedy for the director, who'd found such success with dramas and thrillers.

THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN is one of those sloppy experimental comedies from the 1960s. An anti-"war movie" (rather than an "anti-war" movie). Irreverent, satirical, but a bit messy and undercooked. It's certainly not a great film, but it has its merits. The stylistic conceit of incorporating vintage newsreel footage (with faux newsreel narration) into the story is an interesting touch. The patriotic newsreel montages create an ironical juxtaposition with the decidedly unheroic circumstances of the main characters. Maurice Jarre's bouncing score adds a quirky edge to the wartime setting and keeps things lively.

The plot: A motley group of shipwrecked American sailors (led by a young Alan Alda) comes across a dilapidated British naval vessel and its eccentric and mysterious captain, played by David Niven. The lovely Faye Dunaway joins the crew as they pull out of the Philippines and head out to sea during the final days of WWII. Hijinks ensue.

Mickey Rooney plays one of the sailors and suspects that everyone is a Jap spy. Despite a rather weak script, David Niven gives an enjoyable performance. I liked the casual way he'd report that Alda fell overboard.

During the '60s filmmakers liked to experiment with unconventional storytelling. THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN is an atypical film from John Frankenheimer. The novelty of the newsreel footage gives the film a unique personality, but the madcap editing comes off as messy sometimes. There are some good creative ideas, but the finished movie lacks focus. The result is a little-known curiosity with some recognizable names attached. A mediocre movie, perhaps, and certainly not up to the director's standard, but I think the IMDb community is being too harsh on it (a 2.5 rating?!).

TCM recently ran the legendary EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN with David Niven Alan Alda and Faye Dunaway, not to mention Mickey Rooney and a few other great character actors.

This is a really bad movie, not fun, just bad. The premise has Niven as a dead sea captain haunting a boat until he does a heroic act (Its WW2 and he's been dead since WW1). He's always in white and constantly drinking and never eats. Eventually he confesses his state to Alda who is a high strung CPA who can't figure out whats wrong with the Captain. Intercut with the funny footage is newsreel material cut mixed with witty lines and odd music. Its almost like MASH in some technical ways (the camp announcements say relating to the newsreel narration) but the effect is a stone faced silence. I kept going on with the film to see what was wrong, and its purely the fault of the direction which treats the material too realistically, and Alda who's patented shtick and mannerisms are completely wrong (think MASH at his silliest). How Alda survived this horrible miscasting amazes me, but then weirder things have happened.

Not quite one of the all time stinkers that the Medveds once dubbed it in their 50 Worst Films book, but its bad

What seems like a good idea and with a very talented cast and good timing (Faye Dunaway was a huge star after Bonnie and Clyde) this appalling waste of everything has not improved with 25 years of many equally bad films becoming the norm. No wonder poor old MGM was dying. I would like to know the budget because it looks reasonably low, given most of the 'action' is aboard Niven's leaky old boat. I saw this film in 1969 in Sydney at MGM's own Liberty Theatre and even then as a 15 year old I thought it pretty bad. Seeing it again last night I know how and why it is a sad waste. It even commits the major cardinal sin of showing stock footage of the old tub 'sinking' at the climax of the film...NOT newsreel footage of WW2 which is splattered throughout, but obviously just cheap tinted crap of some other bow going down. MGM did this before with THE LAST VOYAGE, inserting stock at a crucial moment, infuriating and cheating everyone watching, and I was equally irritated with it happening here. Alan Alda was a surprise, as I had forgotten he was in this film and often photographed here quite like Elvis...don't laugh, it struck me several times that if Elvis had an acting male relative the same age he would look a lot like like Alan Alda in this film.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, before there was the direct-to-video market, people who made howlingly bad films had just one way of mitigating the financial loss. That was to send bad movies to small towns where people would pay to see ANYTHING at a movie theater, because there was nothing else to do. (We're talking about the pre-cable, pre-VHS, just 6 channels on TV days, folks!)

This is how I came to see "The Extraordinary Seaman" in a double-bill with "Krakatoa East of Java" in Lancaster, California in 1969 when I was 13 years old. This has to rank as one of the most awful pairings of movies of all time.

It's funny, because for all that I can recall this movie as being incomprehensible, boring to the point of inducing numbness, and funny only in unintentional ways, Alan Alda stood out in it as the only bearable element. (I know Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rooney are credited in the movie, but I cannot for the life of me remember anything about what they did, which is probably a good thing.) This is not to say that his performance was good. It wasn't, that was impossible, this movie was so bad. This movie's most redeeming feature was that it inspired practically the whole theater to throw popcorn at the screen and to add an audience soundtrack of groans and hisses and boos and hoots, and that was fun.

What it left me with is an indelible memory of what a backwater Lancaster, California was in the days before the Antelope Valley Freeway was built: we were the kind of small town where bad films were sent to eke out a little revenue for the people involved. I think about that every time I see some direct-to-video movie in the rack at the supermarket check-out stand.

And I'm devoutly thankful for all the options we have now to avoid seeing movies like "The Extraordinary Seaman."

Faye Dunaway may be many things, but "fun" rarely comes to mind. She was seductively clever in Richard Lester's "Musketeers" pictures, she had a squirrelly fashionista presence in "The Thomas Crown Affair", and she projected a loose, warm personality in "Don Juan DeMarco". Here, in her younger years, she's a cool blonde shiver, calculating and aloof. The film, barely released by MGM, involves a group of military personnel circa World War II who are stranded on an island in the Pacific, coming upon a mystical sea captain and his creaky barge. Separated--for no apparent reason--into SIX acts, and interspersed with actual newsreel footage from the period, one has to assume the final cut was taken out of director John Frankenheimer's hands. Most of the actors look positively baffled. As for the placid Ms. Dunaway, she remains shockingly unruffled by the inane plot and the silly dialogue. NO STARS from ****

I can't recommend this movie however to get a better perspective I do recommend to one and all to read Alan Alda's comments regarding this disaster of a movie in his book, (NEVER HAVE YOUR DOG STUFFED and other things I've learned). In the chapter titled Yes to Everything he describes the chaos of making this movie and sums up by saying: "We finished the picture, and it was released directly into obscurity. I've heard that it played on an airplane over Pittsburgh, and I imagined people strapping on parachutes and jumping to get away from it." That last line made me laugh out loud, in fact many lines in this book will have you laughing aloud and enjoying his view on the world.

John Frankenhimer made "The Extraordinary Seaman" in 1969 and it was one almighty flop; hardly surprising considering it was an extremely unfunny comedy set in the Philippines during the Second World War. If it showed us anything it was that Frankenhimer couldn't do comedy and watching this you might assume that David Niven, Alan Alda and Mickey Rooney couldn't do comedy either or maybe the war with Japan just wasn't that funny or maybe it was the continual cross-cutting from the movie to newsreel footage that killed it. The female lead was Faye Dunaway, who already had "Bonnie and Clyde" behind her; that she survived this muck is testament to her abilities both as an actress and as a star. Extraordinary indeed, but for all the wrong reasons.

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.

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.

This movie (I use the expression loosely) has been on television recently as part of a Mickey Rooney tribute. Well that's some tribute! I couldn't even begin to describe how awful this movie is. With a director like Frankenheimer, stars like Niven, Dunaway, Rooney and Alan Alda, this might have looked good on paper, but the movie itself is indescribable.

I don't know, maybe it started with "The Americanization of Emily", a great movie which I loved then and still love except for the message. The message? That all wars and even WW II are wasteful, useless, stupid, dumb and that there is really not that much difference between them and us. In this case, "The Extraordinary Seaman", Alan Alda is prematurely playing the role of Hawkeye Pierce from "Mash". David Niven is a slightly loony ghost who believes in duty and honor. I guess that's why he's loony. In this farce (in the bad sense) the ghost is trying to do the right thing as he sees it while Alda knows he's wrong. Somehow, twenty-two years after the Greatest Generation saved the world for the rest of us ingrates, it became OK to poke fun at them and what they believed. They were apparently all Colonel Blimps.

Somehow, The rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, the real Bridge on the river Kwai and the notorious vivisection and germ warfare experiments conducted in Manchuria by the Japanese either went away or became lost in some crazy moral equivilency drug haze by the folks who brought us this trash. Yeah, we flattened their cities but after they started it. Freshman logic, if A then B.

And yes, what a zinger of an ending, it was all for naught. I especially liked the chess game. A war just ended that took perhaps 50 million, yes that's million lives and our admirals and their admirals sit down for a game of chess. I wonder how Bull Halsey liked the movie? More than that, I really , really wonder how all those buddies of my father, who never came home in 1945 would have liked this movie? We don't deserve what those guys gave us.

To anyone who actually enjoyed this thing, I recommend mandatory viewing of "The Cruel Sea" until they finally "get it".

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.

I don't understand all the really bad reviews for this film. I don't understand why it attracted such venom. It's a quirky, poorly written, well cast film. This is not a film warranting a 4 or worse. There are some good and a few really good actors turning in fairly good performances with material that's just so-so. material. It's not a bad movie, but it isn't great either. It's an interesting story line that's been done before in movies like "A Connecticul Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and a few others. It's not done anywhere near as good. But just having David Niven and Faye Dunaway in the film makes it worthy of more that a four.

During his career directing movies, John Frankenheimer had an amazing record of great films to his credit. Think about it...he directed "Seven Days in May", the first (and best) "Manchurian Candidate", "The French Connection II", "Seconds", and "The Train" among others. So, it's very surprising when you see "The Extraordinary Seaman"...a bad film actually directed by this great man. According to IMDB, he needed to pay for a divorce...and so he took this slight film. Thankfully, the movie was soon forgotten and Frankenheimer's legacy managed to survive this!

A group of four American sailors are stranded on a lonely island during WWII. Their chance to escape arrives when they come upon a boat that's stuck in the lagoon and a lone British officer (David Niven) gets them to help him dislodge the ship and promises to take them to Australia...back to their forces. However, over time, it seems that the British officer just ain't right....and I'll say more because I don't want to spoil the plot..as if anyone would really care.

The basic story idea is not bad at all. But the problem is the style of movie...and Frankenheimer, sadly, would be to blame for the look of the film. Again and again, to show the audience how funny and clever the picture is, they intercut stock footage of all sorts of WWII era stuff...stuff that is very awkwardly inserted and simply isn't funny. In fact, it's really annoying...especially when they played these clips backwards and forwards again and again for added fun(??). Additionally, the supposed laughs are punctuated with 'funny' sound effects or music. In each case, it feels as if the filmmakers are trying to get us to laugh by telling us when to laugh...almost like inserting a laugh track into the movie. But the problem is that none of these moments are the least bit funny! As a result, it seems as if the film knew it was a turkey and thought adding these things would somehow make audiences howl with laughter...which they didn't. Overall, a desperately bad job of direction make this a sad addition to Frankenheimer's long list of accomplishments. Sadly, it's a grating film...not a great film.

My aunt watched it with me and summed it up well with "It might be a decent film IF they didn't constantly interrupt with all that old footage!".

That's just about all you can say about this film that is so bad you simply have to gape in wonderment. Although just 80 minutes long, the film features an extraordinary amount of padding via moronic file footage of such events as Bess Truman trying unsuccessfully to break a bottle of champagne across an aircraft's nose. The plot has something to do with a ghost (David Niven)whose old scow of World War I vessel is discovered by some American sailors in the final days of World War II in the Pacific. The producers probably thought that with Alda, Rooney, Dunaway (just off her "Bonny and Clyde" fame, recall) and Frankenheimer helming the whole thing, it couldn't miss. Well, it did.

Lt. J / G Morton Krim (Alan Alda), Cook 3 / C W. J. Oglethorpe (Mickey Rooney), and two other American soldiers are shipwrecked while fleeing the Philippines during WWII. They find a grounded ship with drunken British Lt. Commander Finchhaven, R. N. (David Niven). The ship needs repair. They find Jennifer Winslow (Faye Dunaway) with supplies. The six people struggle to get the ship underway and escape from the encroaching Japanese forces.

This is trying to be a black comedy. Director John Frankenheimer is struggling and I don't like cutting in those archival footage for comedic purposes. This is like making fun of the real people of the previous generation. It's the Vietnam War era and there is an odd bent to the material. With all the top level participants, I expected a lot better. This could have been fine if Frankenheimer played the story straight without all the inserted footage.

After watching this turkey on TCM, I wondered what possessed the filmmakers to make this movie. So I bought a used copy and and am nearly finished. One surprise is that the movie is very faithful to the story. Another surprise is that the book is not a comedy. There's a bit of joking but not what I would call humor. It's a straight adventure story with a twist. The author knows a lot about nautical terms, which the movie also depicts.

One thing in the movie that caught my eye was the windows of the bridge. Some scenes had blue in them - the color of blue used in bluescreen photography for special effects. Either the filmmakers thought that blue sky/blue water - it was close enough, or else they ran out of budget money and weren't going to waste it on a stinker.

The best part of the movie is David Niven, who adds a great deal of class and professionalism. Alan Alda is a surprise in that his Hawkeye-like performance would later serve him well in M*A*S*H.

P. S. The cover of the paperback says it is soon to be a movie, but shows Mickey Rooney as the third "star". Quite deceptive, as he only has a minor role.