User reviews

I watched this movie begrudgingly one day and I was amazed at how funny it was. It caught me completely off guard. The drill sergeant is played to perfection by Myron McCormick, whose life is made miserable by hayseed Griffith. Many very funny vignettes, the bar scene still has me LOL, as does much of the movie. Watch and enjoy.

... plus it is fun too! This is really worth watching for two reasons. It is obviously a blueprint for the popular spin-off TV show "Gomer Pyle USMC" starring Jim Nabors in the part played here by Andy Griffith, and it is interesting to make comparisons between the two. Secondly, it really is part of a tribute to the great yet unappreciated range Andy Griffith had as an actor. Here he plays the yokel as well-meaning good guy, anxious to serve his country but just too friendly and green to fully comprehend the discipline he is under in training camp. He thinks it is an honor when the sergeant gives him latrine duty, and his version of the 21-gun salute when the latrine is inspected is truly hilarious. Watch this and then watch him play the yokel as bad guy in "A Face in the Crowd".

This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Andy is priceless in the lead role. Being from the south, I appreciate his authentic accent. Nick Adams was surprisingly good as Ben and Murray Hamilton was a wonderfully obnoxious Irvin.

Like most everyone on here, I sort of fell into this movie one late night and almost decided to turn it off but after 10 minutes I was hooked! It truly is one of the funniest movies you will ever see.

No rude or insensitive remarks, no cursing..just some of the finest acting and gags ever and that includes Marx Brothers movies. This one is a keeper. You will laugh your booty off when Andy Griffith gets into his hillbilly routine. I had no idea that Andy Taylor of Mayberry was this funny! This movie and "Some Like It Hot" are 2 of the best comedies Hollywood ever produced and not one cuss word or nude scene!!!! See it if you ever get the chance!

Movies like this are what they're taking about when they talk of classic comedies. This was the movie version of a Broadway stage hit that ran forever, and anyone who watches this film will readily understand why. Andy Griffith is absolutely perfect as Will Stockdale and Nick Adams, Sergeant King and Don Knotts fit their parts like a glove. They simply don't make many comedies that are as flat out funny as this one. They never did and still don't.

This movie is a lot of fun, so suspend your disbelief and enjoy a Three Stooges style comedy with a Southern accent. Andy Griffith (Will Stockdale) displays his talent playing a character that is, remarkably, even dumber than Gomer Pyle. His ignorance is, of course, a product of an extreme rural Southern upbringing. This movie struck a chord with audiences in the 50's but might be a little harder for current audiences to relate to beyond the slapstick. Young men were conscripted into military service in the 50's and many of those who made up the audience for the film lived through the experiences of suddenly mixing with young men from different backgrounds, much to the torment of the long-suffering drill instructors like the one played brilliantly in this film by Myron McCormick (Sgt. King). Private Stockdale's encounters with military life and the world beyond the family farm where he had spent his life prior to being drafted make for one genuinely funny situation after another. For Griffith, the steep learning curve of Private Stockdale is not intended as a statement that "all Southerners are stupid;" rather, it's Griffith engaging in self-deprecating humor, seeing the comedic possibilities in what amounted to cross-cultural encounters. His own background from a small town in North Carolina and his own experiences no doubt fed into his portrayal of Will Stockdale. Myron McCormick is superb in the role of Sgt. King, who cannot believe what he is seeing from Stockdale. Yet, every time he tries to use Stockdale's ignorance to his advantage, it is Sgt. King who suffers humiliation (as with the Permanent Latrine Orderly, PLO assignment, for example). As many have noted, this film also marked the first collaboration between Griffith and Don Knotts. Knotts is only involved in the film briefly, as an officious and efficient Corporal administering dexterity tests to the recruits. The role is clearly the prototype for Deputy Barney Fife; if you enjoyed Knotts as the nervous, officious Deputy Fife, you'll enjoy his attempts to get Stockdale to perform the dexterity tests properly. This movie is escapism and very enjoyable on that basis.

This movie is on my list of my favorite funny movies of all time. I 've lost count of how many times I've seen it, yet each time I view it, I laugh out loud all over again. It's side-splitting humor without crudeness and vulgarity - a quality that today's movies sadly lack. One of my favorite scenes is where all the draftees are being inducted - particularly where Will comes to the aid of his buddy Private Whitledge. I don't know if this is the first film pairing of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, but their chemistry is readily apparent, in the scene where Private Stockdale is having his manual dexterity tested. I live in the southern Appalachians and I never felt once like this movie was derogatory and condescending towards mountain people. Yes, Andy Griffith's Will Stockdale was extremely naive, but he was never portrayed as being less of a human being because he was from the southern mountains and less experienced in life. I always felt like Private Stockdale's naiveté enabled him to approach things from a different perspective (albeit unknowingly) and come up with quite unique solutions. Andy Griffith was, and is, a master at portraying this kind of character.

Will Stockdale (Andy Griffith) is a well-intentioned, but not too bright, young Georgia man drafted into the Air Force. Despite all his good intentions, Will is too dumb to realize that his efforts to do good and make nice result in disaster, especially for nerdish new associate Ben Whitledge (Nick Adams) and their harried sergeant Orville C. King (Myron McCormick). King does everything in his power to get this amiable nuisance out of his life.

Beginning as a novel by Mac Hyman, this was then turned into a hit Broadway play by writer Ira Levin (of later "Rosemary's Baby" fame). John Lee Mahin scripted this feature film version, which has many bright moments, and a respectable amount of laughs, but which also goes on long enough that it does lose some momentum.

Still, the cast certainly can't be faulted. Griffith and McCormick had originated their parts on stage, and are both superb. Griffith is so danged clueless but also so danged engaging that you can't hate him at all. (You'd sure hate to have to deal with him, though.) Another veteran of the stage version was Don Knotts, here making his feature debut, in the role of a frazzled "manual dexterity tester". Griffith and Knotts became lifelong friends, and when it came time to cast Barney Fyfe for Griffiths' later legendary TV series, it was his old pal Knotts he thought of first. Adams is just perfect as the neurotic, high-strung Whitledge who, more than anything, wants to serve in the infantry like other family members had before him. Other familiar faces lend their valuable assistance, too: future "Jaws" mayor Murray Hamilton as the scheming bruiser Irving, and Howard Smith, Will Hutchins, Sydney Smith, James Millhollin, Jean Willes, Dub Taylor, and Raymond Bailey. And recognize the co-pilot on the plane in the last half hour? Indeed, it's Jamie Farr from the "MASH" TV series.

Directed efficiently by Mervyn LeRoy, "No Time for Sergeants" does have some great scenes and gags, such as the bar scene, or the part where the toilet lids flip up in unison to salute the base Captain (Bartlett Robinson). Griffiths' agreeable stupidity and eager-to-please nature is the glue that holds it all together.

Seven out of 10.

I remember seeing it as a little girl and still try to watch it every time it airs. I even have it on tape. It is simple, clean, and hilarious. I love it because it makes me laugh each and every time I see it and it never gets old to me. The people that play the characters are perfect for their parts. Andy Griffith is a real southern man playing a simple southerner and he is superb! No one else could have done Will Stockdale better. I love his description of his first days in military service ("mashin' our tongues down with popsicle sticks...wompin' our knees with little rubber hammers.."); his duty as PLO - Permanent Latrine Orderly - to glean a favor from the Captain ("it was my aim to get it clean as that room where they gonna cut out yor heart"); buddy Ben; getting class-i-fied; Sgt. King "the best danged Sergeant in the whole danged Air Force"; and finally being a hero "air man".

The movie is based on a book of the same name. Both the movie and the book is set in Callville. The author, Mac Hyman, was born and died in Cordele, Georgia. It isn't hard to see that "Callville" is just a play on the name of the author's hometown of "Cordele." Hyman was studying at Duke University when he left to serve his country in World War II in the Army Air Corps. After the war, he completed his studies at Duke and returned to Cordele. That was when Hyman wrote the novel. It was adapted for television first and then for Broadway and then the movie. Andy Griffith played Will Stockdale in all 3 versions. It was Griffith's second movie after "A Face in the Crowd."

I first watched this movie when I was ten years old. I laughed and laughed and laughed. It still makes me laugh after all these years. When Andy, or Will as he was called in the movie, hit that button in the latrine and all them toilet seats flew up at once to salute the general I thought my dad was going to have a stroke he laughed so hard. My father was a private in the airforce and he related to this movie as he was in the airforce during the early 1950's. I lost my father on July 28th, 1999, and my mom in January 2000, but I have very fond happy memories of laughing with my mom & dad while watching this movie. Those memories are priceless. Thank you for those wonderful memories.

Phyllis Amezquita

Drafted into the air force, an unworldly and unintelligent young man unintentionally and obliviously causes grief for all his superiors in this lively comedy based on a play by Ira Levin. Clocking in at just under two hours, the film is noticeably on the long side. The material runs out of steam towards the end and the movie is very slow to warm up, but once Myron McCormick (as the easily irate drill sergeant) enters the picture around 20 minutes in, there is nary a boring moment to be had. Andy Griffith is decent in the lead role and Nick Adams offers some spunky support, but it is McCormick who truly makes the film come alive with all the funniest scenes working especially well due to his hilarious reactions. The funniest scene has McCormick showing off the latrines (rendered sparkling clean by Griffith) to his immediate superior, only for the situation to turn pear-shaped as Griffith opens his mouth and nonchalantly starts repeating things he has been told, including insults about the superior officer! The humour occasionally feels mean-spirited with a lot of jokes at the expense of the protagonist's lacking intelligence, but generally speaking, the laughs come from how Griffith unreservedly breaks and defies convention in an outfit (the air force) built so heavily on rules and regulations. It is a welcome reminder that a fresh perspective is sometimes necessary in life.

In rebuttal to "Helpless Dancer" of Oklahoma, I would gently point out that the movie IS SUPPOSED to be about a country bumpkin, a very unworldly person who makes his way through the "modern" technically-oriented Air Force. Yes, he does have the comprehension of a barnyard rooster - that's the main gag of the character!! It isn't supposed to represent the president of the high school rocket club.. This movie was a good vehicle for Andy Griffith playing up his "professional country boy" persona. The standout performance for me, however, was Myron McCormick as the Sergeant - what a masterly performance of the exasperated professional Air Force versus the seemingly unbeatable reverse logic of Andy Griffith. McCormick really pulled the movie together for me, taking the role way above a typical sergeant-private adversarial relationship. No, it's not Citizen Kane, nor is it meant to be. It's a fun movie with lots of great characters. Just enjoy it for what it's supposed to be.

I first became acquainted with the book while I was in the army in 1955. It was a true laugh out loud. Imagine me sitting by myself in the company day room laughing hysterically. Later I saw the Broadway play totally expecting to be disappointed. I definitely was not. Again I expected the worst when the movie was released (you can guess I'm kind of a cynic). Boy was I wrong. As far as comedy goes this was as close to perfect as you can come. The scene with the psychiatrist is the funniest all dialog scene there ever was. Remember the scene. There was no physical humor, no jumping around etc just straight dialog between two masters. People seem to remember the toilet seat gag the most. Since I had read the book I knew it was coming, yet it was done beautifully. That is done, not overdone. All the performers were at the top of their art. Even those with very minor roles hit their marks right on. Check the short scene with the female captain. She was absolutely in character. This is true for the entire cast. Myron McCormick gave the performance of a lifetime. And, Andy? What more can be said. It is extremely difficult to be such a center in any movie and yet leave plenty of room for the other actors. Write down some of the lines for NTFS and have someone read them. Not too funny. Then have them see them read in character in this movie and I guarantee they will fall over. I have rambled enough so I'll shut up. PS

Check EBAY they have the VHS tape there.

I rate this film as one of the 10 greatest comedies of all time. The acting is simply superior with Griffith as a simple and unsophisticated country boy with a heart of gold. Myron McCormick, the Sgt. did few movies (check out "The Hustler") but was exceptional whether doing comedy or drama. Many of his lines, which would otherwise be ordinary and forgettable, are remarkably memorable and funny due to his delivery and demeanor. He was an actor of unique wit and ability. Sadly he passed without leaving a great body of work.

Don Knotts shows up in the film in his first pairing with Griffith and the scene they have together would foreshadow more great comedy to come. As a corporal overcome by his own rank and authority, Knotts' job is to test the country boy's manual dexterity. The scene is one of the funniest in motion picture history in my estimation. So too is the scene where Griffith is being tested by the neurotic military "shrink." This movie is non-stop laughs in a day when amusing comedies with sometimes little more than pleasantly clever dialog were hailed as great successes. This film keeps the viewer laughing the whole way through.

Even Nick Adams, the ill-fated character actor that died so young, delivers a great performance. This is also true of Murray Hamilton, who would later play Mr. Robinson in "The Graduate." His role as the recruit who knows it all because he had ROTC for one year (Griffith thinks it was an illness) is a great study in conceit unfounded upon any real achievement. In the end it is Griffith's fresh and innocent humor that makes this films so funny. As a "character" comedy, as opposed to a "gag" comedy, the film gets funnier with each viewing.

This is a hilarious movie that doesn't have to resort to insulting humor or lewd remarks. Andy Griffith is the naive and innocent Will Stockdale who is drafted into the Air Force. He unintentionally reeks havoc across the barracks and with the drill seargant. I laugh until I almost cry most every time I see this gem of a film. This film was the inspiration for The Andy Griffith Show spinoff Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. A wonderful film that is worth watching again and again.

Will Stockdale (Andy Griffith) is a poor clueless backwoods hick from Georgia. He's been drafted and he's eager to see the bigger world. He befriends his bunkmate Pvt. Benjamin B. Whitledge even if he hates him. Whitledge is desperate to leave the Air Force and join the fighting infantry. Will is happy to help him when the opportunity arises with their Sgt. King.

This is early in Griffith's movie career and in two years, he would get his big TV show. He would also bring along his co-star Don Knotts who has a fun little scene with Andy. I do like the psychiatrist scene even more. That's the most hilarious scene in the whole movie because it nails the premise exactly. Stockdale may be clueless but he is supposed to be filled with the wisdom of the common man and he uses it to best superior bookish academics. It doesn't always work like that in other scenes. A lot of this is laughing at the dumb southern bubba which I don't find that funny. It has a touch of Forrest Gump. It would be even funnier if it goes full Gump.

I have seen many movies over my lifetime (60 years this March) and none of them has entertained me as thoroughly as the movie "No Time For Sergeants". This is the funniest movie I've ever seen. If I was to be isolated on an island for the rest of my life and could choose only one movie to take with me, I'd definitely choose "No Time For Sergeants".

The sergeant is a simple old guy who is looking forward to a peaceful retirement from the air force. Just like in real life where dreams remain only dreams, the sergeant's dream of retiring peacefully is faced with the reality of his new recruit---Wil Stockdale. Shoeless Wil Stockdale is the epitome of a "country bumpkin". Wil lived at home with his elderly daddy on their chicken farm in the hills of Georgia until he was called by the draft to serve his country. (Maybe this was the reason the draft was abolished.) Wil is a sincere good-hearted mountain-boy whose gullible naiveté faces reality shock in the air force. He meets an equally-mis-placed buddy who enlisted because he's the youngest of a family of honorable soldiers. The two buddies help each other during their preliminary days as air force recruits. The Sergeant's schemes to have Wil re-assigned far from his command are reminiscent of the Roadrunner Cartoons and Wiley Coyote's foiled attempts at catching the roadrunner.

If you can watch this movie without breaking-out into laughter, especially when the toilet seats salute the Camp's Colonel, then you have no sense of humor. Will Stockdale--- we salute you!

There isn't much to say about this. When Jim Nabors played Gomer Pyle in the Marine Corps, every plot was the same. He did something to upset the Sergeant. Here it is one thing after another with hayseed Andy Griffith causing great pain to another sergeant. No matter how bad it gets, he always lands on his feet. As a matter of fact he actually innovates, making things run smoother. He, of course, has no knowledge of how the military is supposed to work, so it's often just an accident. Griffith is really pretty funny and carries the whole show on his back. His long suffering sergeant does a pretty good slow burn as things fall apart.

This movie was hilarious. I think it was almost a precursor to 'Forrest Gump'. Andy Griffith was hilarious as the dim-witted Will...and seeing him working with Don Knotts before "Andy Griffith" was great. That scene was one of the funniest in the movie. > I recommend this movie to everyone. It's great.

Should have looked closer at the actors and director before watching. Made-for-TV.

Here's my breakdown:

STORY: It's an Andy Griffith story / episode, it's just a different context, that's all.

ACTING: Not horrible, but it's TV-people

ENTERTAINMENT: Low value

TEMPO: Dull

CINEMATOGRAPHY: OK

MUSIC / SOUND: Predictable like an ad jingle

DIRECTING / WRITING: Director: LeRoy was a prolific director, but there are only two (2) films I'd recommend out of 80: "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and "Random harvest" (1942), the latter being one of my favorite romances.

The fact that he took this job makes me cringe!

Writers: Mahin wrote some winners, e.g. "Captains Courageous" (1937) and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941).

But this? It's a drawn-out sit com.

Is it a good film? No, but it's not horrible either - sort of like purgatory

Should you watch this once? If you love Andy Griffith

Rating: 6.5.

For those of you who know Andy Griffith best as the country wise sheriff of Mayberry or as the slick country lawyer Ben Matlock it might come as a surprise that Griffith got his first big career break playing that most ingenuous of military draftees Will Stockdale in No Time For Sergeants first on Broadway and then in this film version. Griffith is such a hick he makes Gomer Pyle look as sophisticated as Noel Coward.

Stockdale is one of those people who glides through life while chaos erupts all around him. Because his father William Fawcett had kept his draft letters from him, when the Air Force finally does come to get him. The man whom the chaos effects the most is his sergeant at the classification center played by Myron McCormick in the best world weary tradition he can muster.

Stockdale's best friend is Nick Adams, a kid from a military tradition family who wants the Army Infantry and not the Air Force and bemoans his fate through most of the film. He convinces Griffith of the fact that the infantry does the real fighting and everyone else just helps out occasionally. Like many other things Griffith takes them to heart and repeats them verbatim always at the wrong time. It's the heart of the humor in No Time For Sergeants.

No Time For Sergeants ran for 796 performances on Broadway during the 1955-57 season and Griffith, McCormick, Don Knotts, and James Milhollin all repeat their roles from Broadway. This not the Andy Griffith Show is the first time Knotts and Griffith work together. Knotts plays a corporal at the classification center administering the manual dexterity test and how Griffith solves it is Gordian Knot like. But his session with psychiatrist James Millhollin is the funniest thing in the film.

No Time For Sergeants is one of the best military comedies ever done on stage and screen. Do not miss it if broadcast.

Georgia hillbilly Andy Griffith (as Will Stockdale) joins the U.S. Air Force after years of having his father scuttle draft notices. Simple-minded but strong, Mr. Griffith befriends small bespectacled Nick Adams (as Benjamin "Ben" Whitledge). In the barracks, Griffith gets under the skin of Sergeant Myron McCormick (as Orville King). In one of the film's more amusing sequences, Mr. McCormick gives a naive Griffith "la-trine" duty. Griffith is proud to be "P.L.O." (Permanent Latrine Orderly), happily scrubbing sinks and toilet seats...

Watch for Griffith's future situation comedy co-star Don Knotts in a small role. Interestingly, Griffith's "Will Stockdale" character is more like future pal "Gomer Pyle" than "Andy" of Mayberry. "No Time for Sergeants" had been a rare comedy entry of "The U.S. Steel Hour" (1955) and was adapted for Broadway the following year, both starring Griffith. For this film, some stretching and loss of intimacy is evident.

****** No Time for Sergeants (5/29/58) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Andy Griffith, Nick Adams, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton

Country bumpkin from the backwoods of Georgia joins the Air Force. Hilarity ensues. Not really. There are a few mildly funny moments here and there but for the most part this is a very labored comedy. In a role that inspired TV's Gomer Pyle, Griffith plays a fellow who has the IQ of a wild mushroom. He's supposed to be endearingly innocent, but it's an act that quickly wears thin, as the character is nothing more than a caricature. Although there is a lot of mugging going on, McCormick and Adams come off he best. There's a brief scene featuring Knotts that makes one want to turn this movie off and switch to a rerun of "The Andy Griffith Show." The film overstays its welcome by at least half an hour.