Una nave tutta matta

The film "Mr. Roberts" is a great movie with a terrific cast. It's a comedy but really much more...with some real depth. Inexplicably, the studio chose to make a sequel nearly a decade later...with a completely different cast and a different tone. You really wonder why they did this...as a sequel seemed unnecessary since the ending of "Mr. Roberts" was perfect for Ensign Pulver. Why make further adventures when they just aren't necessary?!

The film is very similar to the first in that the captain of the crappy supply ship is a tyrant...and an unfeeling one at that. He seems to hate the crew and they clearly hate him as well. The film is about how Pulver manages to break the spirit of his dreadful commanding officer.

"Ensign Pulver" is a very annoying film. On its own, it's actually a very good and funny movie. But as a sequel, well, it's a failure. My advice is to watch the film and pretend it's NOT a sequel but a film which stands on its own. In this context, it's actually quite good and enjoyable...and worth seeing.

Acceptance of 'Ensign Pulver' for what it is gets hampered by dumb Producer choice to cash in on 'Mr. Roberts.' In pacing and overall tone 'Ensign Pulver' has much in common with many WW2 themed light comedies made in the mid-1960's.

This movie is worth watching in our current era first with an understanding of what it meant to be at the time; a mildly distracting 90 minutes of celluloid. It's not bad really.

Second, the movie is worth watching by students of film/culture to note how moral ambiguity influenced 1960's Hollywood. In 'Mr. Roberts' Cagney has a great scene about why he hates 'college boys' yet there's nothing in the film that treats his character with sympathy.

In 'Ensign Pulver' it seems pains are taken to give the Captain a back story so he comes across as a scarred victim of an unfortunate childhood.

Minus Mister Roberts the rest of the characters from that classic play have returned to this sequel that presents Ensign Pulver as the leading character. This film makes the assumption that you have seen Mister Roberts so you know who the main characters are and their personalities before you even watch Ensign Pulver.

Playing the roles of Ensign Pulver, Captain Morton, and Doc are Robert Walker, Jr., Burl Ives, and Walter Matthau. Walker is far more a callow youth than Jack Lemmon was in Mister Roberts. After that show of bravado where Pulver through the Captain's prize palm tree overboard, it's once again business as usual with the tyrannical captain going out of his way to be the meanest man on earth running this navy cargo ship, miles away from the action in the Pacific theater.

At first there's a lot more service type comedy than there was in Mister Roberts, but things do take a serious turn when Pulver and the Captain go overboard during a typhoon. Many days on a rubber raft and then on a tropic island make the captain open up and you get some insight why he's the nasty fellow he is.

Some other key roles are Tommy Sands who plays a sailor looking to get leave because his wife just lost their baby and Gerald S. O'Loughlin who gets temporary command of the USS Reluctant when Ives goes missing. In fact Ensign Pulver makes an addition to Mister Roberts in that the ship we see has a full complement of officers other than the four main characters from Mister Roberts. Look for Jack Nicholson in a small role as radioman Dolan and as per the civil rights era, Al Freeman integrates the crew which was not the case in Mister Roberts.

Walker gets a love interest in Millie Perkins an army nurse who sees him for the shiftless character he is and her supervisor is Kay Medford who has a very droll part.

Ensign Pulver is not a classic like Mister Roberts, but it is an amusing service comedy and holds up well today.

While certainly not the movie of the year(or any year, for that matter), this follow-up to Mr. Roberts was a lot of fun to watch as an adolescent, and later as an adult. It is a totally different movie than Roberts, so don't expect the same caliber or even the same genre-it's just fun to watch! The dialogue is clever, though the characters maybe a little cardboard. Matthau is great as "Doc", Ives as the evil captain, and Walker as the grandiose-yet-cowardly, slingshot and marble carrying ensign. I enjoyed seeing the familiar faces of the many character actors whom you'll quickly recognize (if you are of sufficient age or TV exposure).

We remember the hype about this film : "You'll be Pulver-ized with laughter!!!" Umm. . .NOT!! This seadog of a movie has none of the wit or pathos of "Mister Roberts", it's progenitor. Burl Ives does his level best to save this loser, but his efforts are torpedoed by Robert Walker Jr as Pulver, a pale imitation of Jack Lemmon. For our money, Walker was at his best as a barely recognizable hippie in "Easy Rider", or possibly as a product demonstrator in toy commercials for Milton-Bradley, but never, ever as a junior officer in the Navy. Or the Army either, for that matter. This film was billed as a comedy/drama, but fails miserably as either. The jokes aren't funny, and the alleged drama is hopelessly contrived, such as when Walker and Ives, mortal enemies, are adrift together in a small boat. Oh, can't you just reach out and touch the tension? This movie is essentially an endurance test, and should be required viewing for prospective telemarketers. You, on the other hand, should avoid it at all costs.