The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I have never expected a great deal from Bob Hope's comedies and know perfectly well that his films were meant to amuse their audiences in a lighthearted, unpretentious way. Hope was always the same as an actor but even his sameness was somewhat brilliant and I tend to like him. I remember having had lots of fun seeing THE PALEFACE, Paris HOLIDAY, BACHELOR IN PARADISE and other of his films. THE PRIVATE NAVY OF SGT. O'FARRELL is just an average effort. Frank Tashlin was an excellent director but this is not one of his major comedies. The plot could have resulted in a more substantial screenplay, in better devised and more entertaining comic scenes. The film has an obvious 60's look and no effort was made to give it a more authentic 40's atmosphere. Hope and Diller are their usual selves, and occasionally make one laugh. Gina Lollobrigida is as beautiful as ever but has very little to do. As usual, she is merely seen as a decorative presence. She could be so much more, as we know from films such as COME September, HOTEL PARADISO and BUONA SERA, MRS. CAMPBELL. Mylène Demongeot does a sort of cameo. It would have been to the film's advantage to give her more screen time.

Abbott and Costello may have wreaked havoc on more branches of the military, but they never tangled with two at the same time the way Bob Hope does in "The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell". A somewhat uneven comedy, the film makes do with Hope's traditional one liners and does the best it can with a supporting cast that includes Jeffrey Hunter, Phyllis Diller, and Gina Lollabrigida. At the center of the story is Sgt. O'Farrell's (Hope) plan to bring women and beer to the island base of Camp Funapee. Once accomplished with mixed results, the story meanders off to allow Hope's character to capture a Japanese submarine single handedly, and close out the story arm in arm with the lovely Maria (Lollabrigida).As for the beer, I was surprised to see that it wasn't Budweiser cans floating all over the Pacific, but those of then heavyweight Milwaukee competitor - Pabst Blue Ribbon. It made me wonder if the Anheuser-Busch folks might have been given a shot at the picture. By the time the film really gets rolling, there's a can of Pabst in just about every scene. Being a long time Bob Hope fan, I can't recall today if Pabst was ever a major sponsor of his programming. But I sure do remember Texaco.Hey, did you catch the nod to one of Hope's earlier pictures? All the men are on the beach drinking when the Indian private says to Hope - "Excuse me Heap Big Paleface…" There's also that funny sequence attempting to reenact the beach scene in "From Here to Eternity"; Hope even throws Lancaster's name out there in a bit of self deprecation. Also, if you were waiting to see if Crosby would show up, there's that clip of "Pennies From Heaven" to keep the streak going.Yet even with all the typical Bob Hope humor, he seems just a bit out of place in this late 1960's flick pretending to be one from the 1940's. This one approached the beach blanket bingo genre just a little too close for my comfort, and I prefer virtually any of his earlier efforts in glorious black and white. For my money, if I'm looking for Hope in a military setting, I'd just as soon tune in to one of his many USO entertainment specials. If memory serves, one of them would also have showcased Gina Lollabrigida and Phyllis Diller.

May contain SPOILERS:I approached Bob Hope's and Phyllis Diller's 3rd and final "epic" with some trepidation. After the mediocre "Eight on the Lam" and the dire "Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number!", I wasn't expecting much. However, I am a huge fan of Gina Lollobrigida(billed here as "Miss Gina Lollobrigida") so I decided to give it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. While no classic and far from great Hope, "The Private Navy of Sergeant O'Farrell" is an amiable, easy-to-take farce in the "McHale's Navy" vein and is Hope's best film from a not-so-great period(1964-1972) in his film career. Basically Hope and his men are fighting WWII in the 1960s, not the 1940s, replete with anachronisms including references to "watching reruns" in the decade before TV was commonplace in most American homes. Anachronistic highlight is the gorgeous 41-year old Miss Lollobrigida showing off her breathtaking figure in a 1968 bikini complete with 1968 makeup and hairdo in a sequence allegedly set in 1941 Waikiki. Interestingly enough, no reference is made to Italy being Japan's and Germany's ally during WWII. Jeffrey Hunter, most famous for his portrayal of Jesus Christ in "King and Kings" shows a surprising strong aptitude for comic ability as a lieutenant-cum-descendant of John Paul Jones with a propensity to seasickness. In one of the film's daffier subplots he keeps having romantic dreams about Miss Diller! The Adam and Eve sequence is a hoot. Mako shines as a Japanese-American named Calvin Coolidge Ishimura who gets mistaken for an Axis soldier. All of the likable nonsense is well directed by former Warner Brothers cartoonist turned comedy director Frank Tashlin("Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?", "The Glass Bottom Boat"). In a clever moment, Bob and Gina spoof Burt Lancaster's and Deborah Kerr's "From Here To Eternity" beach love scene 12 years prior to Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty did so in the hit spoof "Airplane!"Bottom line: Nothing great but pleasant and worth seeing if you're a fan of Hope or Gina. Too bad they didn't make more films together.Rating: 6 out of 10 or **1/2 out of ****. Makes a good double feature with either of these Cary Grant WWII Pacific Theater comedies: "Operation Petticoat"(1959) or "Father Goose"(1964).

Really funny plot drives this silly film regarding the boredom faced by soldiers in the Pacific during WWII. After the Japanese torpedo Hope's beer supply, he takes matters into his own hands to improve morale.His effort to bring women on the island, only gets him male nurses and Phylis Diller. Although the plot drags a bit, and Hope's pranks seem dated, this is still a good flick with lots of harmless laughs. However, if you are politically correct, you will probably be offended.