Sail a Crooked Ship (1961)

Director:

Irving Brecher

Writers:

Nathaniel Benchley (writer)
Ruth Brooks Flippen (writer)

Release Date:

December 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

You'll bust your bulkheads when a crew of bungling bank robbers board a ship they can't sail!

Plot:

A bungling burglar, determined to go down in the annals of crime as a genius, steals a ship in New York in order to rob a bank in Boston...

Cast

Robert Wagner	...	Gilbert Barrows
Dolores Hart	...	Elinor Harrison
Carolyn Jones	...	Virginia
Ernie Kovacs	...	Bugsy G. Foglemeyer aka The Captain
Frankie Avalon	...	Ens. Rodney J. Foglemeyer
Frank Gorshin	...	George M. Wilson
Jesse White	...	McDonald
Harvey Lembeck	...	Nickels
Sid Tomack	...	Sammy
Guy Raymond	...	Helmut
Buck Kartalian	...	Finster
Wilton Graff	...	Simon J. Harrison
Marjorie Bennett	...	Mrs. Chowder

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-12

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Crooks At Sea

Burglar Ernie Kovacs is robbing an employment place that hires men for construction or in this case destruction jobs and he answers a phone call from Robert Wagner. Wagner has a job for these guys to start demolishing a fleet of beat up old freighters from the World War II era merchant marine. Kovacs however hears the idea and comes up with a plan to steal one of these old tubs and he assembles a group of his peers to help. In the process they kidnap Wagner and his sweetheart Dolores Hart.

Along for the ride with Kovacs and the gang are his long suffering girl friend Carolyn Jones and his nephew Frankie Avalon. Avalon was at the height of his popularity and his presence guaranteed a profit for the film from the teenage trade alone. He sings a nice song in the film Opposites Attract more in Bobby Darin's style than his own.

Assembled for the caper are such scene stealing characters as Jesse White, Sid Tomack, Harvey Lembeck, and Frank Gorshin. Mix this group together with Kovacs and Jones and you got a pretty funny film.

Before her days as Morticia Adams when a French syllable would drive Gomez into heat, Carolyn Jones was a pretty funny woman, kookie and funny in a Shirley MacLaine way. Her and Kovacs have what's best described as a Nathan Detroit-Adelaide long suffering romance as she can't quite get him to the altar.

Sail A Crooked Ship was the last film for both Ernie Kovacs and Sid Tomack, both would leave us all too soon shortly after this film was finished. Especially Kovacs, his comic genius influenced a whole generation of comedians, the long running Laugh-in Show of Rowan and Martin should have been dedicated to him.

Dolores Hart two years after this film left Hollywood for a different reason. Her work on the film right before Sail A Crooked Ship, Francis of Assisi started her thinking about religion and she became a nun. As of this writing she's prioress of a convent in Connecticut.

It's a pretty funny film, the idea is that the gang sail the ship to Boston Harbor from the Hudson where it is docked and rob a bank there and make the getaway by sea. How many bank robbers make a sea getaway? Of course much happens along the way and things work out a bit differently than as planned.

Funniest moment, the ship steering Frankie Avalon during the hurricane as he yells for Robert Wagner, the only real seaman aboard. Worth seeing it for that alone.