Most of Bob Hopes best films were made in the 1930s and 40s. Many of his later movies, to put it charitably, looked like he was just going through the motions...at best. Because of this, I had pretty low expectations of this film when I sat down to watch it...especially since he is 65 and is playing a sergeant! Were my instincts right? Read on...Sgt. O'Farrell is stationed on a small, out of the way island in the Pacific during WWII. While they don't see any action, they don't see much of anything else, as their supplies have been cut off and they are desperate for some female companionship. Suddenly, a transport plane makes it through and their wish is granted...of sorts. The 'woman' is Nurse Krause...and she's played by Phyllis Diller! As for the rest of the nurses...they're all guys! Inexplicably, Gina Lollobrigida just happens to be there. And, soon beer cans from a sunken supply ship start washing ashore...and suddenly morale improves tremendously. But the Sergeant needs to keep a secret....his partner who is helping him retrieve all the beer is a Japanese soldier (Mako) who has little interest in the war.So does all this sound very funny? No. And that's the problem. You would expect a Bob Hope film to be a comedy but barely anything even comes close to making you laugh and the biggest jokes(???) are about how ugly Diller is...and that really isn't particularly funny. As a comedy, it stinks...and as a war picture, it's not much either due to the strange plot, overuse of bad stock footage and an almost complete lack of anything exciting. A dud...but amazingly NOT among Hope's very worst films of the era, as he managed to be even more unfunny in films such as "How to Commit Marriage" (1969)....a film about as funny as Ebola.

Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Gina Lollabrigida, and Jeffrey Hunter star in this very lightweight comedy about Army life. There's really not much to say, except it's not that great. It has a few laughs and may keep your mind off real-life problems, but the material is just embarrassing for the actors involved, especially Jeffrey Hunter who dreams! of Phyllis Diller. They really milk for every drop the ugliness of Phyllis Diller, but, if she cleaned herself up, she wouldn't look as bad as she's reputed to be. If you're looking for a Bob Hope movie, you couldn't do much worse than this film; but I haven't seen Cancel My Reservation. Don't say you haven't been warned. With them talking about beer all the time, this is one war with a head on it!

By the time Bob Hope got to making The Private Navy of Sgt O'Farrell the comedy well was running a bit dry. Thiw was material that he could have done 20 years before, during the post World War II period. Somebody must have gotten an idea for this film noticing that in McHale's Navy, Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway and the gang had their own personal Japanese prisoner. So a whole film was built around a leftover Japanese soldier on the backwater island that Hope is stationed on. Hope has his own Ensign Parker in Jeffrey Hunter and his own Captain Binghamton in John Myhers.We've got both Army and Navy personnel here though the Navy seems to be in charge. John Myhers is no Joe Flynn with that officious monotone as Captain Binghamton. And no one would ever say that Jeffrey Hunter had Tim Conway's gift for comedy.And Hope looks every bit of the 65 years he had under his belt when this film was made. He ought to have been stateside collecting those first Social Security checks issued.Mako does well as Calvin Coolidge Ishimura an American Japanese who had the misfortune to be visiting relatives in the old country at the time of Pearl Harbor. And Phyllis Diller as the man starved nurse Krauss earns a few laughs.The film is about Hope's pursuit of a sunken supply ship that was loaded with beer. From what I remember of the army it probably would have been near beer which was all an enlisted man could get on Fort Polk, so I didn't see what the fuss was about. Frank Tashlin the director clearly ripped this one off from the classic British comedy Whiskey Galore.Joke kind of fell flat as the beer probably was.

They billed "The Loved One" as the film with something to offend everyone, but this one probably wouldn't fall too far behind to those of a politically correct mind set! Hope plays a US Army sergeant during WWII stationed on a Pacific island which is shared with the US Navy. When a supply ship carrying beer (!) to the island is blown up, he worries about the morale of the men and decides to ship in some pretty nurses. Unfortunately, he gets more than he bargained for in zany, fright-wigged Diller and decides to go back to hunting down the lost beer! He teams up with Navy lieutenant Hunter and a band of other misfit soldiers in trying to reclaim the many, many beer cans which are floating in the ocean and, in some cases, at the bottom of it. Meanwhile, Hope rekindles a love affair with curvy Lollobrigida and, in his spare time, manages to fight the war, almost inadvertently! Of course, it's a comedy, so not all the story points can be taken seriously, but it's really off-center. Set in the 40's, but with all the hair, makeup, clothes and attitudes of the 60's, it's mind-bendingly inaccurate throughout. Also, Hope's treatment of an American Indian soldier in the film is really pushing the limits of good taste. It's very bizarre that a film lampooning the military and featuring such lazy, beer-guzzling, inane soldiers as these could be released right in the middle of the savage and unsettling Vietnam War, but here it is. Still, despite these and other examples of thoughtlessness and idiocy, the film does have more than a few highly comic moments. Hope manages to toss off a few amusing zingers (along with the requisite insults to his old pal Bing Crosby!) Diller is pretty crazy and has a memorable entrance as Hope awaits the "lovely" nurses on an air strip. Hunter shows off a surprisingly energetic and adept comedic touch and is exceedingly handsome with his dark tan and crystal blue eyes. Mako turns up as a Japanese-American and does a nice job as well. Wilcoxon, as a commanding officer, is a long way from C.B. de Mille, but appears to be having a good time, in any case. Many familiar TV faces dot the cast of soldiers including "Bewiched"'s Sergent, "Mork & Mindy"'s Donner and "M*A*S*H"'s Christopher (virtually unrecognizable without his glasses and brogue.) Lollobrigida is unbelievably sexy in a sensational bikini and tries hard to bring a little verve to the film. To describe Demongeot's "role" as window dressing is an understatement. She hardly appears at all and says almost nothing. There's a surprising amount of beefcake on display, despite all the chatter about sexy nurses. Hunter appears in a large fig leaf in one amusing dream sequence and, curiously, Wellman performs virtually the entire film with no shirt on. Even Hope has a scene with his shirt nearly off! The humor runs hot and cold (and most of the story is preposterous, including Hope's big "catch" at the end), but as light entertainment it's not too bad (and it has the benefit of being shot mostly outdoors on some pretty beaches.) It's not for anyone who gets offended by stereotyping, though.