The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)

John Frankenhimer made "The Extraordinary Seaman" in 1969 and it was one almighty flop; hardly surprising considering it was an extremely unfunny comedy set in the Philippines during the Second World War. If it showed us anything it was that Frankenhimer couldn't do comedy and watching this you might assume that David Niven, Alan Alda and Mickey Rooney couldn't do comedy either or maybe the war with Japan just wasn't that funny or maybe it was the continual cross-cutting from the movie to newsreel footage that killed it. The female lead was Faye Dunaway, who already had "Bonnie and Clyde" behind her; that she survived this muck is testament to her abilities both as an actress and as a star. Extraordinary indeed, but for all the wrong reasons.

This absolutely absurd movie was supposedly intended as a message against the War in Vietnam, which was then on the wake. It tried hard to convey the good, old message that any war, including WWII, was as wasteful as stupid. Alan Alda plays a kind of pre-Hawkeye of "MASH" fame, while David Niven is a loony ghost who believes in duty and honor. Decades after the Allies saved the world for the rest of us ungrateful, it became OK for MGM to poke fun at those clumsy Colonel Blimps. Somehow, the POlish Corridor, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor and the germ warfare experiments conducted in Manchuria by the Japanese became forgotten by the director who had magnificently brought us "The Manchurian candidate", "The train" and so forth. I especially loath the chess game, at the ending. After WWII had taken perhaps 50 million lives, opposing admirals sat down for a game of chess! How would all those buddies who never came home before 1945 have seen this movie? We don't deserve it, Mr. Frankenheimer.

Faye Dunaway may be many things, but 'fun' rarely comes to mind. She was seductively clever in Richard Lester's "Musketeers" pictures, she had a squirrelly fashion-queen presence in "The Thomas Crown Affair", and in these later years she has projected a looser, warmer presence (such as in "Barfly" or "Don Juan DeMarco"). But here she's an icy blonde shiver: too cool, too calculating, and too aloof. This film, barely released at all by MGM, involves a group of military personnel circa WWII who are stranded on an island in the Pacific, coming upon a mystical sea captain and his creaky barge. Separated--for no apparent reason--into SIX acts, and interspersed with actual newsreel footage from the period, one has to assume the final cut was taken out of director John Frankenheimer's hands and muddied up by outsiders. Most of the actors look positively baffled, except of course for Faye. She looks shockingly unruffled by the inane plot or the silly dialogue, so placid is her demeanor. "Fun away with Dunaway"?? Anything for publicity... NO STARS from ****

This movie has all the elements of a great movie, with a suspense ending. The Ever-Lasting Bottle of Scotch, was a wonderful touch and I for one would love to have a bottle just like that. This movie, though far-fetched, was a wonderful imaginative film, and usually the type that had not only comedy, imagination, but great acting as well. It looked like they were all having fun in the making of it, and I found it hilarious while watching it in Calgary Alta .