Don't Give Up the Ship (film)

Don't Give Up the Ship
Directed by Norman Taurog
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by Herbert Baker
Edmund Belion
Henry Garson
Starring Jerry Lewis
Dina Merrill
Diana Spencer
Claude Akins
Robert Middleton
Gale Gordon
Mickey Shaughnessy
Music by Walter Scharf
Cinematography Haskell B. Boggs
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • July 3, 1959 (1959-07-03)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country USA
Language English
Box office $3.5 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[1]
1,735,230 admissions (France)[2]

Don't Give Up the Ship is a comedy directed by Norman Taurog and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed from October 21, 1958 to January 30, 1959, and released on July 3, 1959 by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

Following World War II, an entire destroyer escort, the U.S.S. Kornblatt, has mysteriously gone missing. Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII (Jerry Lewis), the last of a long line of good-natured but goofing-up US Navy officers, was tasked with guiding the Kornblatt to its decommission, but somehow the ship disappeared on its home journey without a trace. Now, with a $4 billion appropriation at stake, Congressman Mandeville (Gale Gordon) refuses to approve the funds until the Kornblatt is recovered; and Steckler's former superior, Vice Admiral Bludde (Robert Middleton), who has been trying to sugarcoat this embarrassing incidence, has no other choice but to comply.

Just as he is ready to embark on his honeymoon with his freshly married wife Prudence (Diana Spencer), Steckler is tracked down by Navy personnel and brought to the Pentagon, where he is charged with treason and malevolent misappropriation of government property. Though he can convince the Admiralty of his basic innocence, he is nevertheless charged with finding the Kornblatt within the next ten days, thus upsetting both his wife and his honeymoon plans. Since he is at a loss to explain the whereabouts of the ship, Steckler is teamed up with Naval Intelligence operative Ensign Benson, who happens to be an attractive woman (Dina Merrill).

Benson employs a relaxing therapy to coax Steckler's memory, succeeding with much effort. In a flashback it is told that on the day hostilities in the Pacific were finally ended, the Kornblatt was ordered to return to Pearl Harbor for the decommission of the crew members with sufficient discharge points. Steckler, assisted by Ensign Stan Wychinski (Mickey Shaughnessy), and the remaining crew attempted to get the Kornblatt back to the mainland, but Steckler got the ship stuck on a reef near an island occupied by a garrison of still-intrenched Japanese soldiers. Captured by those soldiers while exploring, Steckler was imprisoned for a night before his impending execution, just for the Japanese commander, Colonel Takahashi (Yuki Shimoda), to learn that the war really was over. By the time of Steckler's release and the garrison's surrender to him, however, the Kornblatt and her crew, believing him dead, had already departed.

With Wychinski being the only viable lead, Steckler and Benson track him down to Miami, Florida, where he works as a professional wrestler. From him they learn that he has turned the Kornblatt over as instructed, but being in the middle of a match, he loses the memory of the responsible official's name when his opponent whacks him on the head. Grounded by a hurricane, and unwilling to spend anymore time separated from Prudence, Steckler takes a train back to Washington, where he is forced to share a compartment with Benson (who incidentally takes a personal liking to him); this circumstance leads to a prompt misunderstanding with Prudence at the Washington railway station, who leaves him in a fury. In addition, Mandeville has drastically cut the time limit in favor of an immediate inquiry on this very day.

In the meantime, Wychinsky, who finally remembers what happened to the Kornblatt, has followed Steckler back to Washington and encounters Prudence, and the two proceed to the hearing which is (due to Mandeville's animosity) progressing very badly for Steckler and Bludde. Given a reprieve of 48 hours, Steckler and Wychinsky proceed to a spot in the ocean where the wreck of the Kornblatt lies following her last use as a target dummy. After a harrowing dive and struggle with nitrogen narcosis and a hungry kraken, they recover a bell from the Kornblatt, thus confirming its fate, and back at the inquiry Mandeville is revealed as the man who had unwittingly assigned the Kornblatt for target practice, ignoring red tape. Finally rehabilitated, Steckler manages to secure a significantly higher appropriation for the Navy, and is happily reunited with Prudence.

Production

The USS Vammen was used to portray the fictional ship the USS Kornblatt. Previously the USS Stembel (DD-644) was listed as the ship portraying the Kornblatt, but this was an error. The Stembel was a Fleet Destroyer, the Vammen (DE-644) a Destroyer-Escort.

Re-release

The film was re-released on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, Rock-A-Bye Baby in 1962.

Comic book adaption

A comic book adaption of this film was released as issue number 1049 of the Dell Four Color comic book series in August 1959 with a photo of Lewis on the cover.[3]

Cast

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
  2. ↑ Jerry Lewis films French box office information at Box Office Story
  3. ↑ http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/item/fb04843c-a1b5-44e8-815d-54c75ea57388/Four-Color-1942-1049

External links

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