Just back for a moment to mention that Ensign Pulver (1964) is on Turner Classic Movies very, very late tonight. This is another movie that I recommend not because I think it's good — portions are but the totality is not — but because I think it's interesting. Josh Logan had a huge triumph with the play and movie of Mister Roberts. Several years later, he wanted to do a cinema-only sequel spotlighting Jack Lemmon's character and he wrote a script that Mr. Lemmon respectfully declined. If you see the film, you'll understand why.
Logan got the film made anyway, sticking Robert Walker with the thankless task of replacing Jack Lemmon in an Academy Award winning role. Mr. Walker is probably the least-known member of a cast that included Larry Hagman, Walter Matthau, Jack Nicholson, Peter "Hollywood Squares" Marshall, Tommy Sands, Dick Gautier, Al Freeman Jr, James Farentino, a skinny James Coco, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Kay Medford and George Lindsey in his pre-Goober days. And there was also Burl Ives, who walks off with the movie as he plays the rottenest, nastiest captain you ever loved in a movie.
Had it been a standalone film, unrelated to its predecessor, it might have fared better. Then again, had it not been a sequel to Mister Roberts, it probably wouldn't have gotten made. It's really a sad follow-up to a great movie but there are some fine performances and great moments and am I making clear that I don't think this is a great movie but that it is one you might want to watch anyway?
We are now resuming Mushroom Soup Mode…