Lieutenant Rip Crandall is hoodwinked into taking command of the "Wackiest Ship in the Navy" -- a real garbage scow with a crew of misfits who do not know a jib from a jigger.Columbia Pictures acquired the rights to a story in the July 1956 issue of Argosy titled Big Fella Wash Wash, inspired by reminisces from former Echo skipper Meredith "Rip" Riddle. The story was advertised on the cover of the magazine as "The Wackiest Ship in the Army", because the naval vessel had been under Army command while in port, and Columbia used that title when purchasing the story in 1957. The movie never explained any connection between the ship and the Army, puzzling some viewers.Oddly enough, it never occurred to me that "Army" was strange, since I think of "army" as a general term for the military as well as the specific branch. But yeah, I can see how that might be confusing... now I feel foolish I had not noticed sooner.

I've seen this movie several times, and I can't remember really laughing one time at anything in the film, but it raises a grin here and there. Lemmon does his best to carry the film, but the title and story are ho- hum at best. The story is carried more by attitude and atmosphere generated by music and performance, and not by any real gag nor humor in the script itself.Speaking as a man who used to race yachts in his younger days, this film doesn't really hit on the short comings of novice sailors, and it could have. Instead an antiquated wooden sloop is given the ugly treatment, and the sailors try to portray their characters as being reluctant incompetents. Real novice sailors ask questions, don't know a halyard from a mainsheet, and where the jargon and equipment is briefly touched on, it's clear that the screenplay artist and director don't know much about sailing nor training sailors.Still, it's a WW2 comedy, so the movie going audience at the time probably gave it some leeway, and Lemmon's performance is a pleasure to watch. In fact all the actors hit their marks, but the script and some of the direction where accentuating the humor goes, falls short. But, if you can get my that, and you can if you let Lemmon and the supporting cast wash over you, the movie is okay. But just okay.I hadn't seen the film in years, and watching it with a more mature and educated mind, I can still appreciate it as a film experience out of nostalgia, but if I were a younger viewer being introduced to this film, I might get a little impatient with it.If you grew up with it, you'll like it. If you're new to it, then there's much to criticize. Give it a try, or watch at your own risk.p.s. there was no Air Force in WW2. It was the US Army Air Corps.

The Wackiest Ship In The Army is directed by Richard Murphy and written by Herbert Carlson. It stars Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson & Chips Rafferty. It's filmed in CinemaScope and Eastman Color on location at Pearl Harbour & Kauai (Charles Lawton Jr. director of photography).The basis for the film is to thrust the bemused Lemmon onto a past its sell by date schooner, and surround him with sea-faring characters who don't know a stern from a mast. Cue confusion with a mission that nobody is all too clear about and you get a knockabout farce launched from an Australian port in 1943. The writing unleashes the usual staples of people banging their heads on things, falling overboard and pulling exasperated looks from time to time. The last third of the picture oddly shifts to something resembling drama as the mission unfolds, but it's an awkward fit and one has to wonder what the intention of the makers was from the off.Funny in parts but dreary in others, the film is only watchable for Lemmon's gusto and Lawton Jr's lovely CinemaScope photography. 5/10

I agree with several of the previous reviewers.This is a peculiar mixture of comedy and drama. After all, getting run through by a samurai sword is hardly a joke.But for the most part it is pleasant enough mild comedy, though scarcely a classic.Since this movie is not intended to be taken seriously, pointing out "factual errors" is just for fun.One happens after they are captured.The Japanese officer shows them an aerial photo taken several days previously showing the ship with the crew disguised as natives, and says that because of this they can be shot as spies.While the Japanese were not noted for adhering to the rules of war, and did not sign the Geneva Convention, as the officer points out, Japan DID sign the Hague conventions on naval warfare of the 1890's. One provision, sometimes known as the "disguised commerce raider clause" gives Naval vessels in wartime free rein to do what soldiers are NOT permitted to do on land.Warships and their crews may adopt any disguise they choose, fly neutral or enemy flags, adopt any deception that they want.Soldiers doing the same on land , if caught, can legally be shot as spies.It may seem unfair and inconsistent, but that is the way it is under the rules of war.A minor point is that since the days of sail were not that far in the past then, you would think that the Navy could find enough men experienced in sail to man the ship.But then veterans of the armed forces will tell you that the military rarely uses common sense!