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The Horizontal Lieutenant ()


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A luckless army intelligence lieutenant finds himself stationed on a remote island army outpost during World War II, where all the action is between the sheets.

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Cast verified as complete

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Second Lt. Merle Wye
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Lt. Molly Blue
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Lt. Billy Monk
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Cmdr. Jeremiah Hammerslag
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Col. Charles Korotny
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Akiko
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Yeoman Leo Buckles
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Sgt. Jess Yomura
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Michido
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Sgt. Roy Tada
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Kobayashi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
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Officer (uncredited)
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Nun (uncredited)
John Burnside ...
Lieutenant (uncredited)
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Club Patron (uncredited)
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Lieutenant (uncredited)
Ken DuMain ...
Club Patron (uncredited)
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Officer at Welcome Party (uncredited)
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Lieutenant (uncredited)
Shep Houghton ...
Club Patron (uncredited)
Allen Jung ...
Minor Role (uncredited)
Richard Kindelon ...
Club Patron (uncredited)
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Lt. Handy (uncredited)
Audrey Lowell ...
Nurse (uncredited)
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Col. Frank Delgan (uncredited)
Addison Myers ...
Officer (uncredited)
Tony Regan ...
Club Patron (uncredited)
Max Reid ...
Bartender (uncredited)
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Club Patron (uncredited)
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Master of Ceremonies at Show (uncredited)
Roy Taguchi ...
Japanese Prisoner (uncredited)
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Oriental Spy (uncredited)
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Doctor (uncredited)
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General (uncredited)
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Teammate (uncredited)

Directed by

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Richard Thorpe

Written by

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George Wells ... (screenplay by)
 
Gordon Cotler ... (based on the novel "The Bottletop Affair" by)

Produced by

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Joe Pasternak ... producer (produced by)

Music by

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George Stoll

Cinematography by

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Robert J. Bronner ... director of photography (as Robert Bronner)

Editing by

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Richard W. Farrell

Editorial Department

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Charles K. Hagedon ... color consultant

Art Direction by

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George W. Davis
Merrill Pye

Set Decoration by

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Henry Grace
Otto Siegel

Makeup Department

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Mary Keats ... hair stylist
John Truwe ... makeup artist
William Tuttle ... makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

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William Shanks ... assistant director

Sound Department

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Franklin Milton ... recording supervisor

Visual Effects by

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A. Arnold Gillespie ... special visual effects
Robert R. Hoag ... special visual effects
Lee LeBlanc ... special visual effects

Music Department

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Albert Sendrey ... orchestrator (uncredited)

Additional Crew

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Irving Aaronson ... assistant to producer
Crew believed to be complete

Production Companies

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Distributors

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Special Effects

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Other Companies

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Storyline

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Plot Summary

1944. Hapless Second Lieutenant Merle Wye of the US army's intelligence service is dismayed that he has not seen any action - he imagining himself as a suave undercover agent, worming secrets out of exotic female spies - instead being confined to a desk job in Honolulu. For non-military reasons, Merle is assigned a new posting - his first field job - that on the South Pacific island of Rodahan. He eventually learns that both his job on Rodahan and the posting in general are rather innocuous, as the Americans liberated Rodahan from the Japanese eight months ago, there has been no action there ever since, and as such it is a rather quiet, idyllic locale. All the Japanese soldiers on the island surrendered at the time, that is all except one, a man named Kobayashi, who is unarmed and seen as being harmless because of it. Merle's job is to locate and bring in Kobayashi, solely because he has been pilfering luxury goods from the US army commissary and officers' quarters the last little while. Merle's task, however, does take on some urgency as his new superior officer, Colonel Charles Korotny, who sees Merle as being useless, threatens to ship him off to what is the remotest of the remote army outposts if he makes the Colonel look bad by not being able to achieve this one simple task. Merle's job is not made any easier by the presence of Navy Commander Jeremiah Hammerslag, also newly posted to the island and a man who is overly officious also to be rather useless, and the help of Merle's underling, Sergeant Roy Tada, who is more interested in the twelve women he is currently courting back home than he is with anything to do with the army, especially if those army tasks get himself killed. Through it all, Merle tries to bolster the nature of this job and its dangers to woo the woman of his dreams, army nurse Lieutenant Molly Blue, who he knew and basically dismissed while in college back in Kansas, but who has blossomed since, and as such can have her pick of any man she wants, most who outrank Merle. Written by Huggo

Plot Keywords
Taglines It's the funniest service comedy since the War of 1812! See more »
Genres
Parents Guide Add content advisory for parents »
Certification

Additional Details

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Also Known As
  • The Bottletop Affair (United States)
  • La guerre en dentelles (France)
  • El teniente horizontal (Mexico)
  • Ein Leutnant und ein Bett (West Germany)
  • 戦略泥棒作戦 (Japan, Japanese title)
  • See more »
Runtime
  • 90 min
Country
Language
Color
Aspect Ratio
Sound Mix
Filming Locations

Box Office

Budget $1,020,000 (estimated)

Did You Know?

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Trivia This is believed to be the first of a handful of films shot in the short lived Panacolor system. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer struck the U.S. release prints in their own lab under the Metrocolor label. See more »
Goofs When Lt. Wye is transferred to the island, the shoulder patch on his uniform changes to one signifying the U.S. Army's Ryukyu Command. This film is set during WWII and this patch did not appear until 1950 (although some references state it was unofficial as early as 1947). See more »
Movie Connections Referenced in Kitty Carlisle vs. Jack Carter: evening show (1962). See more »
Soundtracks The Horizontal Lieutenant See more »
Quotes Lt. Molly Blue: So I date a lot. I admit it. I'm shopping around. I'm 22, Merle. By the end of this war, I may be 30.
Second Lt. Merle Wye: That's why I say, "Gather ye rosebuds, while ye may."
Lt. Molly Blue: Oh, I wish I had a dollar for every time that's been suggested. You could at least be a little more original.
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