HotToastyRag
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.
dbborroughs
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
ptb-8
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.
moonspinner55
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 fashion-queen presence in "The Thomas Crown Affair", and in these later years she has projected a looser, warmer presence (such as in "Barfly" or "Don Juan DeMarco"). But here she's an icy blonde shiver: too cool, too calculating, and too aloof. This film, barely released at all by MGM, involves a group of military personnel circa WWII 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 and muddied up by outsiders. Most of the actors look positively baffled, except of course for Faye. She looks shockingly unruffled by the inane plot or the silly dialogue, so placid is her demeanor. "Fun away with Dunaway"?? Anything for publicity... NO STARS from ****
AD
