The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)

User Rating:

1.9/10   

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writers:

Hal Dresner (writer)
Phillip Rock (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 December 1969 (Uruguay)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Tagline:

We would like to thank Adolf Hitler, David Niven, Joseph Stalin, Faye Dunaway, Tojo, Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter, Alan Alda, John Frankenheimer, and the millions of Nazis, Japanese, and Americans who made this picture possible.

Plot:

Lt. Commander Finchhaven, a ghostly relic from the First World War, he had fallen down dead drunk on...

Plot Keywords:

WWII

Cast

David Niven	...	Cmdr. John Finchhaven, RN
Faye Dunaway	...	Jennifer Winslow
Alan Alda	...	Lt. (j.g.) Morton Krim
Mickey Rooney	...	Cook 3 / C W. J. Oglethorpe
Jack Carter	...	Chief Gunners Mate Orville Toole
Juano Hernandez	...	Ali Shar
Manu Tupou	...	Seaman 1 / C Lightfoot Star
Barry Kelley	...	Adm. Barnwell
Leonard O. Smith	...	Dyak
Richard Guizon	...	Dyak
John Cochran	...	Dyak
Jerry Fujikawa	...	Adm. Shimagoshi

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:11 | USA:G | Australia:PG

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Last film of Barry Kelley.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Lionpower from MGM (1967)

Middle-aged, pompous, reactionary, nationalistic, chess-playing Blimps, but no hawk-eye perception

This absolutely absurd movie was supposedly intended as a message against the War in Vietnam, which was then on the wake. It tried hard to convey the good, old message that any war, including WWII, was as wasteful as stupid. Alan Alda plays a kind of pre-Hawkeye of "MASH" fame, while David Niven is a loony ghost who believes in duty and honor. Decades after the Allies saved the world for the rest of us ungrateful, it became OK for MGM to poke fun at those clumsy Colonel Blimps. Somehow, the POlish Corridor, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor and the germ warfare experiments conducted in Manchuria by the Japanese became forgotten by the director who had magnificently brought us "The Manchurian candidate", "The train" and so forth. I especially loath the chess game, at the ending. After WWII had taken perhaps 50 million lives, opposing admirals sat down for a game of chess! How would all those buddies who never came home before 1945 have seen this movie? We don't deserve it, Mr. Frankenheimer.