Ensign Pulver (1964)

If ever there was a great movie that did NOT cry out for a sequel, it was "Mister Roberts," with its gruff, poignant, perfect ending. A bad sequel like "Ensign Pulver" is particularly disappointing.The setting here is the same as in the earlier classic -- a scroungy old Navy vessel on the fringes of the Pacific Theater late in World War II. This movie is built around Ensign Frank Pulver, the sidekick of Mister Roberts in the original movie. Unfortunately, Robert Walker Jr., who plays Pulver here, can't match the original screen Pulver, Jack Lemmon. It's almost like they're playing different people.That's the main problem, I think, too much tinkering with familiar characters. The focus of "Mister Roberts" was the battle of wits and wills between the idealistic Roberts (Henry Fonda) and the embittered captain (James Cagney). But in this film, the captain (now played by Burl Ives) finds himself psychoanalyzed by Pulver. Cagney's captain was hard to like but easy to understand, while Ives' version is as complicated as a Tennessee Williams character.And how about Doc? In "Mister Roberts," he was portrayed by an older actor, William Powell, in one of his last roles. A counterpoint to the captain, Doc was a man who had grown wise, not cynical, with age. Walter Matthau, though a fine actor, is a much younger Doc in this one, and one who's not particularly wise. He's just another madcap guy in a madcap crew."Mister Roberts" had a lot of wonderful laughs, but ultimately it was dead serious about World War II. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. But in "Ensign Pulver," the greatest conflict in history is just an excuse for humdrum hijinks. It's really too bad.

Minus Mister Roberts the rest of the characters from that classic play have returned to this sequel that presents Ensign Pulver as the leading character. This film makes the assumption that you have seen Mister Roberts so you know who the main characters are and their personalities before you even watch Ensign Pulver.Playing the roles of Ensign Pulver, Captain Morton, and Doc are Robert Walker, Jr., Burl Ives, and Walter Matthau. Walker is far more a callow youth than Jack Lemmon was in Mister Roberts. After that show of bravado where Pulver through the Captain's prize palm tree overboard, it's once again business as usual with the tyrannical captain going out of his way to be the meanest man on earth running this navy cargo ship, miles away from the action in the Pacific theater. At first there's a lot more service type comedy than there was in Mister Roberts, but things do take a serious turn when Pulver and the Captain go overboard during a typhoon. Many days on a rubber raft and then on a tropic island make the captain open up and you get some insight why he's the nasty fellow he is.Some other key roles are Tommy Sands who plays a sailor looking to get leave because his wife just lost their baby and Gerald S. O'Loughlin who gets temporary command of the USS Reluctant when Ives goes missing. In fact Ensign Pulver makes an addition to Mister Roberts in that the ship we see has a full complement of officers other than the four main characters from Mister Roberts. Look for Jack Nicholson in a small role as radioman Dolan and as per the civil rights era, Al Freeman integrates the crew which was not the case in Mister Roberts.Walker gets a love interest in Millie Perkins an army nurse who sees him for the shiftless character he is and her supervisor is Kay Medford who has a very droll part. Ensign Pulver is not a classic like Mister Roberts, but it is an amusing service comedy and holds up well today.

I had the unfortunate experience of watching this film today, home sick from work with the flu. From the start of the movie, I marvelled at the plot being so close to that of Mister Roberts, made some 9 years earlier in 1955. Captain Moreton (Burl Ives) is the captain of a cargo ship in 1945, somewhere in the Pacific. His motley crew just hate his hard-nosed manner, with no give-and-take, no leave and no freedom. His ambition is to become a Commander. Ensign Frank Pulver (Robert Walker Jr) plays a joke that badly misfires and somehow, both men are overboard and spend their next few weeks together in a rubber dinghy. On running aground on a sandy beach, Ensign Parker renews aquaintances with a nurse he met earlier in the film. At the same time, Captain Morton falls ill and needs an appendicectomy. The two are reunited with their ship to find the Captain is now a Commander. The crew are so dismayed at the thought of having the past come back and haunt them again. Frank Pulver has a confidential talk with the Commander and the next day we see the Commander leave the ship for the last time. The plot and acting was very second rate. The only time Burl Ives realised his true acting talents, was just before the end when he had an emotional man to man talk with Ensign Pulver. This was close to his best when playing Bid Daddy in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. An interesting notable came out when reviewing the cast of the movie. Burl Ives was a noted actor back then in 1964 and his co-lead Robert Walker was not really heard of. He never went on to become a household name. Other actors in the movie who were absolute nobody's back in 1964 were Walter Matthau (Doc), Larry Hagman who played Billings, and Jack Nicholson who played Dolan. Their faces were instantly recognisable and some 40 years later, these actors are now household names. Surely it can't have been the making of this movie who hurtled these three actors into stardom. My advice is if you are feeling sick and this movie is rerun, don't watch it as it will make you sicker. 2/10 max.

The movie is a misguided sequel to the comedy classic "Mister Roberts." I warn anyone who has seen that movie to avoid this travesty.What makes is bad? Well, all the seriousness of its predecessor has been stripped. Plus, the cast is mediocre. (Who could replace Jack Lemon and James Cagney?) This one is bad, bad, bad, though Jack Nicholson fans note that said actor has a smallish part.