The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

John Frankenheimer's run of consecutive '60s classics comes to a rather undignified end with The Extraordinary Seaman, a universally panned flop that even the director himself couldn't defend. "The only movie I've made which I would say was a total disaster" was his somewhat honest verdict. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what goes wrong with this one – it's based on a decent story by Philip Rock, features an exceptionally talented cast and comes from a director on a winning streak. However, despite all this promise, the film emerges a hugely disappointing affair, lacking the necessary vitality and barely generating a smile during its entire running time.Shipwrecked in the Phillipines during WWII, four American seamen are desperate to find help before the Japanese invasion force arrives. Cook Oglethorpe (Mickey Rooney), gunner's mate Orville Toole (Jack Carter), silent giant Lightfoot Star (Manu Tupou) and their inexperienced senior office Lt. Morton Krim (Alan Alda) stumble across a rundown ship called the Curmudgeon, beached on a sandbank beside a river in the jungle. They board the ship and discover the only other person on board is eccentric British Navy captain John Finchhaven (David Niven), who claims that the ship belongs to him. Eventually they manage to refloat the vessel and set off toward the ocean, hoping to make for Australia. They also pick up a passenger in the attractive form of Jennifer Winslow (Faye Dunaway), a tough and resourceful trading post entrepreneur who wants out before the Japanese arrive. During their voyage, it becomes more and more obvious to the group that Captain Finchhaven is not at all what he seems. He drinks continually yet never gets drunk; he never sleeps; he never leaves the bridge; he doesn't even duck or dive for cover under enemy gunfire. Only later does the "ghostly" truth about Finchhaven become clear, as he reveals his whimsical past and the fact that he is cursed to roam the seas forever until he puts right an ancient wrong….Thankfully, The Extraordinary Seaman is at least brief with its nonsense. At a mere 80 minutes (a good 15 of which are taken up with stock newsreel footage) the film is over before it becomes an ordeal on the backside. It is, however, an ordeal on the intellect, with its intentionally absurd yet horribly flat narrative. Characters come and go without amounting to anything (Dunaway especially) and the story never seems to go anywhere. Alda tries hard in one of his earliest movie roles and Niven manages to convey his random eccentricities quite nicely, but there the positives end. The film's satirical edge is totally blunt, while the crude inter-cutting of newsreel footage, presumably to add 'comic irony', really doesn't work at all. There's a dispirited air hanging over the whole movie, as if everyone realised early on that they were involved in a disaster and decided to get it over with as quickly and indifferently as possible.

Director John Frankenheimer's films always had pretty good batting averages. Classics such as "The Manchurian Candidate", "Seven Days in May", and "Birdman of Alcatraz" have all stood the test of time. ("Prophecy" is pretty substandard, but we'll forget about that one.) However, "The Extraordinary Seaman" is just abysmal. Despite the presence of Frankenheimer and a big-name cast (David Niven, Alan Alda, Faye Dunaway, Mickey Rooney) the film has very little plot, fairly atrocious acting, and no point at all.During World War II, Morton Krim (Alan Alda) finds himself aboard an old military ship in the Pacific. Besides the crew (including Rooney) the ship is manned by an eccentric British captain (Niven). After the ship picks up Jennifer (Dunaway), Krim begins to notice that the captain drinks constantly from a whiskey bottle that always seems full, is impervious to bullets and shrapnel, and keeps his uniform immaculately clean, no matter the circumstances. It appears that the captain is a ghost destined to skipper the ship forever until he redeems himself in battle. The crew has various nonsensical and unconnected adventures (including interaction with island natives that is painful to watch), before the captain finally redeems himself by sinking a Japanese ship, in a climax that is supposed to be humorous but instead is just dumb.Lots of WWII newsreel footage is included, but it's so unrelated to the film's so-called plot that it seems way out of place. Niven, Dunaway, Alda, and Rooney are usually worth watching, but they can't rise above the ridiculous story and haphazard direction. In particular, the Japanese airplane attack on Niven's ship is somehow supposed to be funny (I guess) but instead it's just excruciating. Although it is interesting to see a pre-MASH Alda, his performance isn't really believable at all, since he looks very late-1960s in a mid-1940s setting. Frankenheimer was a very capable director, but he wasn't good enough to salvage this dud. If there are worse ways to pass the time than watching this movie, I can't think of any. This may be the biggest star-studded turkey of 1969.

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.

I remember this movie as a ghost that shows up in the hours before sunrise on the TV, from time to time. It's quite absurd, but I guess Life, and even War itself, sometimes feel just as nonsensical. I also believe the producers were quite possibly against the War in Vietnam that was happening at the time. Anyway, it was astoundingly funny to watch this one.