Could Jim Hutton ever have been a star? Producers loved casting him in support roles in comedies and action films during the 60s, but he rarely got a lead. This puts him front and center, in what should have been sure fire material - albeit in 1962 starting to be a little dated: to wit, a service comedy from MGM via old veterans Richard Thorpe (director) and George Wells (writer). But it's not very good and Hutton flounders
Maybe he didn't have what it took - he was often compared at his peak to James Stewart (a similarly gangling type of actor) but he never had Stewart's intensity or voice. But he was an easy going, charming actor with a likeable presence and real flair for comedy - I think he could have carried more movies as star, with better material.
It's the story that sinks this. Hutton plays a bumbling officer in army intelligence who is shipped off to the islands and winds up capturing a Japanese soldier who refuses to surrender. That's not a bad idea for a movie but the story goes all over the shop - Hutton keeps making mistakes and being saved by deux ex machinas, he becomes passive for much of the story which is taken over by his Japanese American mate, we never really got a fix on his character other than "bumbling", I got other characters confused, I wasn't sure if this was set during the war or just afterwards (no one seems to regard the Japanese as any sort of threat), Paula Prentiss (who's great as always) needed more to do, there should have been some life and death stakes.
Jim Backus and Charles McGraw are on hand. It's colourful and just wants you to like it. And there is some novelty with its mostly sympathetic depiction of the Japanese.
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