Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Movie review - "All Hands on Deck" (1961) **

Pat Boone service comedy which must have seemed old fashioned even in 1961. There is however some novelty in the story - he's a naval officer whose main job is looking after one of his sailors, Buddy Hackett... who happens to be an oil rich Indian. Hackett's character has the maturity level of an eight year old and is forever getting into trouble but the navy protect him because they don't want to annoy his relatives. So it's patronising because Hackett is so childish - and the characters are constantly describing him in derogatory slang terms (even his superior officers) yet its one of the few Hollywood movies where the Indian character actually has a lot of status in the white man's world.

Gale Gordon does his thing as a commanding officer; there's also Dennis O'Keefe as another commanding officer, and Barbara Eden as the love interest. The first half of the film is basically about Boone trying to keep control of live wire Hackett - then the filmmakers seem to get bored with that and it becomes about a turkey who is on board ship and they want to kill, and Boone's romance with Eden, including her getting on board ship.

The movie really is a bit all over the shop - Indians, turkeys (played by a turkey who gets his own billing), women on board, blustering officers. All the normal things the navy get up to in peacetime, in other words.

This was Pat Boone's most relaxed performance yet - he's bright and energetic, and plays well off the cast (Eden is an ideal co star for him). It's a shame his material isn't stronger.

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