Don't Give Up the Ship

The destroyer USS Kornblatt has been missing since World War II and Congressman Gale Gordon wants to know where it is. It's several million dollars worth of taxpayer's money from Uncle Sam. The last guy in charge was a career Navy man who since World War II has risen from Ensign to Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII played in every generation by Jerry Lewis.

Don't Give Up The Ship deals precisely with a guy who apparently did just that and can't find it now. In a brief prologue to the film we see how Jerry playing several members of his family served their country in a kind of homage to Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets. Despite a Steckler serving in the Navy for seven generations, the USA still became a superpower.

As VJ Day was celebrated the USS Kornblatt was given orders to sail to San Diego and be decommissioned. Every other officer had enough points for discharge so command devolved on Jerry Lewis. The Kornblatt stopped at an island where Lewis was captured by some Japanese soldiers left there who weren't told the war was over. His men left him there, thinking he was killed. That was the last he saw of his ship.

With this renewed interest in the Kornblatt and Navy appropriations on the line, Admiral Robert Middleton has given Lewis a special assignment to find his lost destroyer. Aiding him is Ensign Dina Merrill from Naval Intelligence.

On top of everything else Jerry's planning to get married to Diana Spencer and the wedding has to be postponed. Diana's not understanding her beloved working in close quarters with Merrill. Romantic complications are the last thing Jerry needs.

I think Don't Give Up The Ship was one of Jerry Lewis's funniest solo films since breaking up with Dino. It's got a lot of good physical comedy that Lewis excelled at and many opportunities to overact outrageously and with gusto.

It's a must for Jerry Lewis fans.

It seems that the USS Cornblatt is missing. How can a USS Cornblatt be missing? Oh wait, Jerry Lewis was left in charge of it. In what I think is one of his best films, Jerry Lewis is at his funniest as he is trying to find this huge piece of metal, or else pay an exorbitant amount for it. But wait! He was just married and on his honeymoon, when he was shanghaied. Diana Spencer plays his new wife, and she is very good at being teasingly impatient. He tries to see his wife every chance he gets, but then he is quarantined to private quarters. Mabel Albertson is his mother who frowns on this inconvenience and especially the mention of Jerry's father, who was absolutely no good, absolutely. And, when Ensign Benson, played deliciously by Dina Merrill, is assigned to help Jerry look for the destroyer, he keeps trying to keep her away from his wife. Part of the story is told by way of flashback, when Ensign Benson puts him into hypnosis! Also costarring Mickey Shaughnessy, Gale Gordon, and Claude Akins, this is a feel-good film all over. Up there with "The Delicate Delinquent," this is simply Jerry Lewis at his best.

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.

I've always liked this film. It made me laugh when I first saw it as a youngster, and I got a bigger kick out of it as an adult. As a former Naval officer, I can appreciate some of the silliness that Jerry goes through in this movie; from "inheriting" his ship, to the naval bureaucracy.

Dina Merrill is great as Ensign Benson (I actually knew an Ensign Benson, and a Midshipman Shipman, but that's beside the point!) as is Mickey Shaugnessy as the Chief who helps him along (always listen to your Chief).

There's silliness galore, but it wouldn't be Jerry Lewis without it. Look for a nice homage/parody to the Caine Mutiny Courtmartial during the hearing scenes. Gail Gordon is at his ornery best in these scenes.

This is a lighthearted film that makes for an entertaining 90 minutes. Not a classic, but a lot of fun.

I must admit that I am not a huge fan of Jerry Lewis' films. While I've seen all the ones he did with Dean Martin, I have avoided his solo films because (in my opinion) he tended to overact and subtlety was NOT a concern. I think my view is colored by my having seen some of his very worst solo films first. It's hard to watch another Lewis outing after having seen (uggghh!) "Cracking Up" (1983)--a film so bad that it went straight to video and the only movie I've ever watched that made me physically ill (seriously). So, in fairness, I decided to watch a few of his earlier films to see if they are worth seeing.

While I would never say that "Don't Give Up The Ship" was no work of genius, it is a mostly pleasant little film. While Lewis DID occasionally mug and overplay things very badly, for the most part it's a decent little time-passer.

Lewis is a lieutenant in the Navy during the present day. He's just gotten married and is about to embark on his honeymoon when he is arrested and brought to account for a ship he apparently 'lost' back in 1945 when the war ended. Where exactly the boat got to is what the big-wigs want to find out--and it's inexplicable that a ship could be misplaced for a decade and a half until anyone noticed this! Much of the film consists of flashbacks of Lewis during the war (when he was an ensign) as well as his meetings with a psychiatrist (Dina Merrill) who tries to dig into the facts.

For the most part, there are no big laughs at all during this film--none. But, it also is pretty inoffensive as well--but could have been better had Lewis behaved like a relatively believable naval officer. As I said, his mugging and overplaying occasionally made the film tough viewing. But the film isn't bad in a mindless sort of way. Just turn off your brain and enjoy.

By the way, in the underwater diving scene near the end, note that Jerry is sweating--and you can see sweat dribbling off his arms. Yet, he is supposed to be under water! This is a particularly dumb portion of the film (with very a very fake looking shark and octopus). Try to look past this.