''Don't Give Up the Ship'' is a 1959 American

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

U.S. Navy

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

from

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

, produced by Hal B. Wallis, directed by

Norman Taurog Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Skippy (film), Skippy' ...

, that stars

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...

and co-stars Dina Merrill, Diana Spencer,

Claude Akins Claude Aubrey Akins (May 25, 1926 – January 27, 1994) was an American character actor. He played Sonny Pruit in '' Movin' On'', a 1974–1976 American drama series about a trucking team; Sheriff Lobo on '' The Misadventures of Sheriff Lob ...

Robert Middleton Robert Middleton (born Samuel Abraham Messer; May 13, 1911 – June 14, 1977) was an American film and television actor known for his large size, beetle-like brows, and deep, booming voice (for which he was known as "Big Bob Middleton"), usua ...

Gale Gordon Gale Gordon (born Charles Thomas Aldrich Jr., February 20, 1906 – June 30, 1995) was an American character actor who was Lucille Ball's longtime television foil, particularly as cantankerously combustible, tightfisted bank executive Theodore J ...

, and

Mickey Shaughnessy Joseph C. Shaughnessy (August 5, 1920 – July 23, 1985), better known as Mickey Shaughnessy, was an American actor and comedian. Early life Joseph C. Shaughnessy was born in New York City. He began in show business working as a singer at reso ...

. The film was shot from October 21, 1958 to January 30, 1959 and was released June 16, 1959. The film was based on the ''

Alcoa Theatre ''Alcoa Theatre'' is a half-hour American anthology series sponsored by the Alcoa Corporation and telecast on NBC at 9:30 pm on Monday nights from September 30, 1957 to May 23, 1960. For its first four months on the air, the title ''Turn o ...

'' episode ''Souvenir'' aired on Dec 2, 1957 starring

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, he was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in comedy-drama films. He received num ...

that was written by Ellis Arnold Kadison. Kadison's idea was based on

Edward Anhalt Edward Anhalt (March 28, 1914 – September 3, 2000) was an American screenwriter, producer, and documentary filmmaker. After working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for Pathé and CBS-TV, he teamed with his wife Edna Anhalt, one of ...

then serving with the Army Air Force

First Motion Picture Unit The 18th AAF Base Unit (Motion Picture Unit), originally known as the First Motion Picture Unit, Army Air Forces, was the primary film production unit of the United States Army Air Forces, U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II, and w ...

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

signing for a captured German Messerschmidt that was to be used as a prop in a training film. When the aircraft disappeared, Anhalt was issued with a bill from the US Government for $175,000 until a search revealed that the aircraft was discovered as a

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

on the

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

backlot A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction. Uses Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...

Plot

Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, an entire

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

, the U.S.S. ''Kornblatt'', has mysteriously gone missing. Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII, the last of a long line of good-natured but screw-up U.S. Navy officers, was tasked with commanding the ''Kornblatt'' to its decommission back in the U.S., but somehow the ship disappeared without a trace on its homeward voyage. Now, with a $4 billion appropriation at stake,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

man Mandeville refuses to approve the funds until the ''Kornblatt'' is found. Steckler's former superior, Vice Admiral Bludde, who has been trying to sugarcoat this embarrassing incident, has no other choice but to comply. Just as he is ready to embark on a honeymoon with his freshly wedded wife Prudence, Steckler is tracked down by Navy personnel and brought to the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

, where he is charged with treason and malevolent misappropriation of government property. Though he can convince the admirals of his basic innocence, he is nevertheless charged with finding the ''Kornblatt'' within the next ten days, thus upsetting both his wife and his honeymoon plans. Since he is at a loss to explain the whereabouts of the ship, Steckler is teamed up with Naval Intelligence operative Ensign Benson, who happens to be an attractive woman. Benson employs a relaxing therapy to coax Steckler's memory, succeeding with much effort. In a flashback, it is told that on the day hostilities in the Pacific were finally ended, the ''Kornblatt'' was ordered to return to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

for the decommissioning of those crew members with sufficient discharge points. Steckler, assisted by Ensign Stan Wychinsky and the remaining crew, attempted to get the ''Kornblatt'' back to the mainland, but Steckler got the ship stuck on a reef near an island occupied by a garrison of still-entrenched Japanese soldiers. Captured by those soldiers while exploring, Steckler was imprisoned for a night before his impending

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

, only for the Japanese commander, Colonel Takahashi, to learn that the war really was over. By the time of Steckler's release and the garrison's surrender to him, however, the ''Kornblatt'' and her crew, believing him dead, had already departed. With Wychinsky being the only viable lead, Steckler and Benson track him down in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, Florida, where he works as a professional wrestler. From him, they learn that he has turned the ''Kornblatt'' over as instructed, but being in the middle of a match, he loses the memory of the responsible official's name when his opponent whacks him on the head. Grounded by a hurricane, and unwilling to spend any more time separated from Prudence, Steckler takes a train back to Washington, where he is forced to share a compartment with Benson (who incidentally takes a personal liking to him); this circumstance leads to a prompt misunderstanding with Prudence at the Washington railway station, who leaves him in a fury. In addition, Mandeville has drastically cut the time limit in favor of an immediate inquiry on this very day. In the meantime, Wychinsky, who has finally remembered what happened to the ''Kornblatt'', has followed Steckler back to Washington and encounters Prudence. The two proceed to the hearing, which is (due to Mandeville's animosity) progressing very badly for Steckler and Bludde. Given a reprieve of 48 hours, Steckler and Wychinsky go to a spot in the ocean where the wreck of the ''Kornblatt'' lies following her last use as a target dummy. After a harrowing dive and struggle with nitrogen narcosis and a hungry kraken, they recover a bell from the ''Kornblatt'', thus confirming the ship's fate, and back at the inquiry Mandeville is revealed as the man who had unwittingly assigned the ''Kornblatt'' for target practice, ignoring the

red tape Red tape is a concept employed to denounce excessive or redundant regulation and adherence to formal rules for creating unnecessary constraints on action and decision-making. The occurrence of red tape is usually associated with governments but a ...

. Finally, rehabilitated, Steckler manages to secure a significantly higher appropriation for the Navy, and is happily reunited with Prudence.

Cast

as John Paul Steckler * Dina Merrill as Ensign Benson *

as Wychinsky *

as Congressman Mandeville *

as Vice Admiral Bludde *

as Lt. Commander Farber * Diana Spencer as Prudence * Hugh Sanders as the Admiral * Richard Shannon as Cmdr. Cross * Yuki Shimoda as Colonel Takahashi (uncredited)

Production

USS ''Vammen'' was used to portray the fictional USS ''Kornblatt''. Previously, USS ''Stembel'' (DD-644) was listed as portraying the ''Kornblatt'', but this was an error. ''Stembel'' was a Fleet Destroyer, while ''Vammen'' (DE-644) was a Destroyer Escort.

Re-release

''Don't Give Up the Ship'' was re-released in 1962 as a

double feature The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...

with another Jerry Lewis film, '' Rock-A-Bye Baby''.

Reception

At the film

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Don't Give Up the Ship'', with 68 reviews, carries a rating of 3.5 on a 5 scale, with 42% of viewers liking the film.

Home media

''Don't Give Up the Ship'' was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 25, 2017.

In other media

Comic book

A comic book adaptation of the film was released in August 1959 as issue number 1049 of the Dell

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', is an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

comic book series; it featured a photo of Jerry Lewis on the cover.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Don't Give Up The Ship (Film) 1959 films 1959 comedy films American comedy films Films based on television plays American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films Films about the United States Navy Films adapted into comics Films directed by Norman Taurog Films produced by Hal B. Wallis Films scored by Walter Scharf Military comedy films Paramount Pictures films 1950s American films English-language comedy films