Everything's Ducky

"Everything's Ducky", a 1961 broad, slapstick fantasy, has the feel of a 60s Disney comedy. I believe that it is TV director Don Taylor's first big screen project. The idea for the film is alright, but it all should have been broader. Mickey Rooney is a first rate comedian who never found the right vehicle after his tenure at MGM. He wanted to be part of a team and even asked Bud Abbott to team up with him after Lou Costello's death. Here, Rooney is teamed with Buddy Hackett. They look good together, but they are not permitted to work out routines together. Rooney is a solid burlesque pro, and Hackett was known for his use of blue material. There isn't even any double entendre humor here. Rooney and Hackett could have been dynamite with proper material. This film doesn't even have enough slapstick to make it work.

Joanie Sommers is wasted here as Rooney's "love" interest, but Elizabeth MacRae puts in a convincing performance as Hackett's girl friend. Although Jackie Cooper gets good billing in the credits, he only has a small cameo. Richard Deacon gives his usual solid performance as a fruity scientist. Roland Winters, as Rooney and Hackett's commanding officer, is much too restrained; he needed to play this over the top. It was a nice surprise to see Alvy "Mr. Kimball" Moore, from "Green Acres" as a messenger. A major disappointment was Walker Edmiston's nondescript voice as the duck.

The Hi Los sing two catchy songs by Harold Spina. According to the credits there were supposed to be three songs. But where are the songs for Joanie Sommers? She would have done well by Spina's catchy tunes. A duet with Rooney would have been nice.

Unfortunately, the film does not have a real conclusion. Like a poor two reel comedy, it just stops. I wonder if the production company ran out of money.

I turned on this comedy, not expecting much. It looked like the sort of meaningless unfunny 'family' comedies that Disney specialized in during the late 1960s. But the sure comic timing of Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett won me over immediately: and the absurdity of the situation -- two sailors on a submarine in the middle of the desert, told off to deliver a talking duck is carried through surefootedly. True, it is cheaply shot and timed to look more like one of those fantasy-comedies that populated TV during the 1960s -- Mr. Ed, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters -- but there is something about its attitude towards the government, with its idiotic bureaucratic navy that speaks to 1960s dissatisfaction and rebellion than all of Jack Nicholson's performances.

It's not a great movie by any means, but a very amusing time-waster, with some great parts for old timers like former child actor Jackie Cooper and ex-Charlie Chan Roland Winter.

In order to avoid the draft, Buddy Hackett (as Admiral John Paul Jones) and Mickey Rooney (as Kermit Beetle McKay) have joined the Navy. "Everything's Ducky" for the pair when they're assigned an easy mission; in "Operation Bird Brain", they are to set free a recently dead officer's duck. The sailors become attached to "Scuttlebutt", the duck who can talk. Mr. Hackett and Mr. Rooney take the duck out drinking, and become financially attached to Scuttlebutt. They try to save their feathered friend from Navy officers, who want to cut the bird's brain out.

Contrived lunacy as in the hands of Hackett and Rooney is criminal. This film is both unfunny and unpleasant. Despite Scuttlebutt's boasting he can handle a few martinis, the duck gets roaring drunk. The sight of the drunken, neck-wobbling duck is unsettling. It's also obvious filmmakers have put some irritant in the duck's mouth, in close-ups, to make it appear to be talking. The duck looks very uncomfortable.

Jackie Cooper (as Parmell) makes an impressive re-appearance on film, after a long absence; his appearance is mercifully short, considering the star-billing, and weakness of material. And, singer Joanie Sommers (as Nina) appears, without singing.

** Everything's Ducky (1961) Don Taylor ~ Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper

This was a favorite of mine growing up. I watched many times whenever it cropped up on a local TV station, and even went to see it when a local church showed it one Saturday morning. It's plot is about two misfit sailors (Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett) who become friends with a talking Duck named Scuttlebutt. The duck was a favorite of a brilliant scientist, he decided to speak just like his scientist friend. Now the Navy after the scientist's death need to find a formula the late scientist had developed and realize that the duck might have the formula in his brain and want to kill him to read his brain. So our two sailor heroes try to save Scuttlebutt from that fate.

Yes, it is as silly as it sounds, but the actors and direction by Don Taylor actually make it somewhat believable. There is a wonderful scene with Rooney alone on a park bench, where two other sailors and their girls are making out on each side of Rooney. Rooney plays the scene well and it's very funny. After watching it again today i can see why I loved it so much as a young boy, and it's still fun for me today. Don't expect a great movie here, but if you are a fan of Rooney's or Hackett's, they are in fine form and show the promise of a great comedic team, just like they did a few years later in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I wish that they actually made more films together. But as i said it is worth a look, especially if you have small children around.

Silly. Silly. Silly. Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett are Navy men John Paul Jones (remember your history) and Beetle McKay, stationed somewhere in the desert - looks like Palm Springs to me. Alvy Moore (was the absent minded Hank Kimball on Green Acres) plays Jim Lipscott. Jackie Cooper, as in child actor Jackie Cooper from the oldies, is Lieutenant Parmell. Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley, from Dick Van Dyke Show) is the lab doctor Deckham. The sailors are sent to pick up a duck from a special military lab, and I can't say a whole lot more without giving away plot points.... It's all pretty silly, and I guess now we know why they don't show this very often. This appears to be the first Hollywood film that Don Taylor directed --all his earlier stuff was for TV; guess none of the more seasoned directors would touch it.... I'll just say they couldn't make this with a live duck today - PETA and SPCA would be all over them! Lets give this one a four... it would have been a three, but there are some familiar names in it who went on to be bigger (and better).