Siflutter
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Lucia Ayala
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
classicsoncall
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.
s007davis
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).
sbox
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.
Stefan Kahrs
Many people cannot stand Bob Hope and his mannerisms, and, to be honest, I am one of them. Most of his films are little more than an extended stand-up routine of his with mostly rather predictable jokes.But sometimes he pulled off a better film, like his Paleface movies, and this one here is even better - it must surely be the best film of his career, although most critics failed to notice it. Apart from having better jokes and a better cast than the usual Hope effort, this film even comes with a message. It is anti-racism and anti-war but it does not wear this attitude on its sleeves, it merely subverts it under the cover of slapstick comedy into the mind of the viewer. I'll be hard pushed to name another anti-war movie which brings across its message so effectively, and this is an amazing thing to say about a Bob Hope flick, given the stiff and famous competition in this field.
