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The navy has, from time to time, been an extremely popular
setting for farces and musicals of various sorts. The following
is a selective list, again omitting many titles where the
naval component is negligible.
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| All Hands on Deck (US, 1961, 98 mins) |
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| Comedy-romance-musical about a navy
lieutenant and a newspaperwoman. With Pat Boone, Buddy
Hackett, Barbara Eden. Dir Norman Taurog |
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| The Baby and the Battleship (GB, 1956,
95 mins) |
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| In the aftermath of a drunken shore
leave in Naples, a baby is brought aboard a warship about
to take part in a mock battle. With John Mills, Richard
Attenborough, Lionel Jeffries. Dir Jay Lewis |
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| The Bulldog Breed (GB, 1960, 97 mins) |
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| Episodic naval comedy vehicle for
popular comedian of the day. With Norman Wisdom, Ian Hunter,
David Lodge. dir Robert Asher |
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| Carry On Admiral (aka The Ship Was
Loaded) (GB, 1957, 82 mins) |
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| Comic confusion when a ship's captain
and a parliamentary private secretary switch places. With
David Tomlinson, Brian Reece, Peggy Cummins. Dir Val Guest |
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| Carry On Jack (GB, 1964, 91 mins) |
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| Entry in the long-running series,
deriving its punning and funning from Nelson's navy. With
Kenneth Williams, Bernard Cribbins, Juliet Mills. Dir
Gerald Thomas |
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| Chesty Anderson USN (aka Anderson's
Angels) (US, 1976, 88 mins) |
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| Mild sexploitation comedy concerning
the adventures of some glamorous recruits. With Shari
Eubank, Rosanne Katon, Timothy Carey. Dir Ed Forsyth |
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| Cry for Happy (US, 1961, 110 mins) |
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| Four sailors and four geisha girls;
sentimental comedy set in Japan. With Glenn Ford, Donald
O'Connor, Miiko Taka. Dir George Marshall |
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| Don't Give Up the Ship (US, 1959, 89
mins) |
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| An ensign has to abandon his honeymoon
to locate a cruiser that he mislaid in WW2.With Jerry
Lewis, Mickey Shaughnessy, Dina Merrill. Dir Norman Taurog |
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| Don't Go Near the Water (US, 1957, 107
mins) |
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| Far from the fighting in WW2, a navy
public relations unit sets up base on a Pacific island.
With Glenn Ford, Fred Clark, Anne Francis. Dir Charles
Walters |
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| Down Periscope (US, 1996, 92 mins) |
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| A down-trodden clerk joins the navy
in WW1, where he outwits a gang of spies and sinks a U-boat.
With Clifford Mollison, HF Maltby, Wendy Barrie. Dir Marcel
Varnel |
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| Ensign Pulver (US, 1964, 104 mins) |
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| Sequel to Mister Roberts (see Stories
of the War at Sea) with the emphasis this time almost
entirely on comedy. With Robert Walker Jr, Walter Matthau,
Burl Ives. Dir Joshua Logan |
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| The Extraordinary Seaman (US, 1969,
80 mins) |
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| Comic ghost story, set in WW2; the
spirit of a disgraced British commander is condemned to
sail the seas until he redeems himself in battle. With
David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda. Dir John Frankenheimer |
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| Further Up the Creek (GB, 1958, 91 mins) |
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| Sequel to Up the Creek (see below):
further adventures of the rascally crew of HMS Aristotle.
With Frankie Howerd, David Tomlinson, Shirley Eaton. Dir
Val Guest |
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| Girls at Sea (GB,1958, 80 mins) |
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| Another remake of The Middle Watch
(see below). This time three girls are stuck on board
ship after a party. With Ronald Shiner, Michael Hordern,
Nadine Tallier. Dir Gilbert Gunn |
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| The Honeymoon Machine (US, 1961, 87
mins) |
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| Lieutenant uses his ship's computer
to beat a roulette game. With Steve McQueen, Paula Prentiss,
Jim Hutton. Dir Richard Thorpe |
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| Hot Shots! (US, 1991, 85 mins) |
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| Parody of Top Gun (see Naval Aviation
section, above). With Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria
Golino. Dir Jim Abrahams |
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| How To Be a Sailor (US, 1943, 7 mins) |
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| Disney cartoon in which Goofy joins
the navy. Dir Jack Kinney |
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| Jack Ahoy! (GB 1933, 82 mins) |
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| Musical comedy concerning the adventures
of a seaman aboard 'HMS Stupendous', sailing in Chinese
waters. With Jack Hulbert, Nancy O'Neil, Alfred Drayton.
Dir Walter Forde |
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| McHale's Navy (1964, 93 mins) |
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| Big-screen version of a popular TV
series of the day about the unheroic crew of a PT boat.
With Ernest Borgnine, Joe Flynn, George Kennedy. Dir EJ
Montaigne |
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| McHale's Navy (US, 1997, 109 mins) |
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| Up-dated rehash of characters from
previous title. With Tom Arnold, Dean Stockwell, Ernest
Borgnine. Dir Bryan Spicer |
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| Meet the Navy (GB, 1946, 82 mins) |
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| Film version of popular forces stage
show which toured Canada and the UK during the war. With
Lionel Murton, Margaret Hurst, John Pratt. Dir Alfred
Travers |
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| The Middle Watch (GB, 1930, 112 mins) |
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| Adaptation of 'naughty' stage hit
of the day: two girls come aboard ship as officers' guests
and are forced to stay the night when the picket boat
proves unseaworthy. With Owen Nares, Dodo Watts, Jacqueline
Logan. Dir Norman Walker |
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| The Middle Watch (GB, 1939, 87 mins) |
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| Remake of previous title. With Jack
Buchanan, Greta Gynt, Kay Walsh. Dir Thomas Bentley |
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| Minesweeper (US, 1943, 67 mins) |
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| Comedy-drama about the misadventures
of a farmer and a gambler on board a minesweeper. With
Richard Arlen, Guinn Williams, Jean Parker. Dir William
Berke |
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| The Navy Lark (GB, 1959, 82 mins) |
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| Film version of long-running radio
series featuring comic goings-on aboard a minesweeper.
With Cecil Parker, Leslie Phillips, Ronald Shiner. Dir
Gordon Parry |
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| Nobody's Perfect (US, 1968, 103 mins) |
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| Comedy and romance among crew of
a submarine based in post-war Japan. With Doug McClure,
Nancy Kwan, James Whitmore. Dir Alan Rafkin |
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| Onionhead (US, 1958, 110 mins) |
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| Slapstick adventures of a recruit
in the US Coastguard. With Andy Griffith, Felicia Farr,
Walter Matthau. Dir Norman Taurog |
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| On the Town (US, 1949, 98 mins) |
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| Classic comedy musical about the
adventures of three sailors on shore leave. Included here
as representative of a group of similarly-themed movies,
which include Hit the Deck (1930,remade 1955), Follow
the Fleet (1936, with Fred Astaire), Anchors Aweigh (1945,
also with Kelly and Sinatra), All Ashore (1953) and So
This is Paris (1954). With Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra,
Ann Miller. Dir Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly |
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| Operation Petticoat (US, 1959, 124 mins) |
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| A submarine captain draws on the
skills of his wheeler-dealer lieutenant to get his broken-down
boat seaworthy. With Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Dina Merrill.
Dir Blake Edwards |
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| Operation Petticoat (US, 1977, 105 mins) |
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| Remake of previous title;
a TV series also ensued. With John Astin, Richard Gilliland,
Yvonne Wilder. Dir John Astin |
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| Petticoat Pirates (GB, 1961, 87 mins) |
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| A group of Wrens, angry
when their application for sea duty is turned down, seize
a frigate while her crew is on shore leave. With Charlie
Drake, Anne Heywood, Maxine Audley. Dir David MacDonald |
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| The Russians Are Coming! The Russians
Are Coming! (US, 1966, 126 mins) |
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| A submarine manned by
some confused Russians causes panic when it accidentally
lands in Nantucket. With Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner, Brian
Keith. Dir Norman Jewison |
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| Sailors Three (aka Three Cockeyed Sailors)
(GB, 1940, 86 mins) |
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| Three drunken sailors stranded in
a neutral South American port accidentally board a German
battleship. With Tommy Trinder, Michael Wilding, Claude
Hulbert. Dir Walter Forde |
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| Skirts Ahoy! (US, 1952, 109 mins) |
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| Comedy-musical set in the women's
division of the Great Lakes navy training centre, and
concentrating on a trio of would-be WAVES. With Esther
Williams, Vivian Blane, Joan Evans. Dir Sidney Lanfield
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| Trust the Navy (GB, 1935, 71 mins) |
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| Comic feud aboard HMS Improbable between
two sailors and a chief petty officer. With Lupino Lane,
Wallace Lupino, Guy Middleton. Dir Henry W George |
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| Up the Creek (GB, 1958, 83 mins) |
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| Skyving and conniving aboard a mothballed
cruiser permanently anchored at the mouth of a creek.
With Peter Sellers, David Tomlinson, Wilfrid Hyde White.
Dir Val Guest |
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| Up To His Neck (GB, 1954, 91 mins) |
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| Seaman is left in charge of a stores
depot on a South Seas island, then forgotten about for
ten years. A sort-of remake of Jack Ahoy! (See above).
With Ronald Shiner, Laya Raki, Harry Fowler. Dir John
Paddy Carstairs |
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| The Wackiest Ship in the Army? (US,
1960, 99 mins) |
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| Mixture of laughter and heroics, in
which ship bound for the scrap yard is used to decoy Japanese
attack force. With Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson, Chips Rafferty.
Dir Richard Murphy |
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| Watch Your Stern (GB, 1960, 88 mins) |
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| Brilliant but accident-prone electronics
expert joins the navy. With Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Connor,
Joan Sims. Dir Gerald Thomas |
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| We Joined the Navy (aka We're in the
Navy Now) (GB, 1962, 105 mins) |
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| Anglo-American misunderstandings,
with British naval liaison officer at the centre of the
troubles. With Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien.
Dir Wendy Toye |
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| You Know What Sailors Are (GB, 1953,
89 mins) |
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| Some old ironmongery welded to the
deck of a foreign destroyer by a tipsy lieutenant is mistaken
for a secret weapon. With Donald Sinden, Akim Tamiroff,
Dora Bryan. Dir Ken Annakin |
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| You're In the Navy Now (aka USS Teakettle)
(US, 1951, 93 mins) |
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| Allegedly based on fact, this concerns
a novice crew coping with an experimental ship powered
by a new system of high-pressure steam. With Gary Cooper,
Eddie Albert, Jane Greer. Dir Henry Hathaway |
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