Movies
Wackiest Ship in the Army, The (Columbia 1960, Jack Lemmon, Ricky Nelson)
Jack Lemmon commands a broken-down WWII navy vessel with an inexperienced crew through waters patrolled by the Japanese. Ricky Nelson costars as a particularly green recruit who does some fine singing, but Lemmon’s comedic exasperation carries the day.
Ricky Nelson offers up ‘some high Cs’ (as the advertising for The Wackiest Ship in the Army, proclaims) and croons ‘Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans,’ a song introduced by Billie Holliday in New Orleans (1947).
production details
USA | Columbia | 99 minutes | 1960
Director: Richard Murphy
Producer: Fred Kohlmar
Original Story: Herbert Carlson
Director of Photography: Charles Lawton Jr.
Editing: Charles Nelson
Music:George Dunning
Script: Herbert Margolis, Richard Murphy, William Raynor
Art Direction: Carl Anderson
cast
John Lund as Lt. Cmdr. Wilbur F. Vandewater
Jack Lemmon as Lt. Rip Crandall
Patricia Driscoll as Maggie
Tom Tully as Capt. McClung
Richard Anderson as Lt. Dennis M. Foster
Ricky Nelson as Ens. Tommy J. Hanson
Chips Rafferty as Patterson
Joby Baker as Josh Davidson
Warren Berlinger as Radioman 2nd Class A.J. ‘Sparks’ Sparks
Mike Kellin as Chief Mate Jack MacCarthy