Was forced to watch this movie at sleep away camp. If your a huge fan of the series how was it possible to have a movie without it's star Ernest Borgnine? During the whole movie you would wonder or hope that Ernie at least would make a cameo in this slow moving,frustrating and down right dull picture. Ted Bessel's character doesn't even fill the void in this bomb. Prior to his death I met Ernie at a book signing in New York City and he told me it was one of the greatest honors to have your characters name in a title and not be present. Ernie was overseas working on another film called THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX. A Jeep falling out of an airplane couldn't save this lemon.

The title of the comment about says it all. Even though there is a good comedic cast in this movie and some amusing moments, I think they were a bit desperate to try to sell this without Ernest Borgnine being in it.On the other hand, you do get to see Tim Conway, and early looks at Gavin MacLeod and Bob Hoskins. Sadly, although he was in a lot of TV and film I watched in the 60s, I just never could warm up to Joe Flynn's single character persona. Of course, he was always the foil, so you weren't meeant to warm up to him. Still, other notable character foils managed to do so without being quite as irritating. (Ted Baxter in Mary Tyler Moore, or Richard Deacon in The Dick Van Dyke Show, as examples).

Ernest Borgnine was off making The Flight Of the Phoenix when this picture was made. It's a very good film. I highly recommend it.I was wondering why the great Carl Ballantine didn't make the cast either. He's the actor who played Gruber in the series and the first film.I had forgotten how awful the movie actually was until both McHale's Navy films ran in tandem on the satellite the other night. I saw both of these films as a child and they were basically long versions of the TV show. The first one is the better.Tim Conway's physical humor is the only thing that keeps this movie afloat. He did much better stuff as part of the Carol Burnett Show later on.

They made two theatrical movies with the cast of the original series with one notable exception -- this one didn't have McHale and thus surrounds Binghamton and Parker -- with the usual shtick. There are three funny scenes and the rest of it rambles on interminably. If you like the series, you will find this bearable but are better off renting a tape with episodes from the actual series. Still, this is better than the hideous 1997 remake.