BEFORE: This is the sequel to "Mister Roberts", though it was released 9 years later and had different actors playing the key roles. Linking actors from "Mister Roberts" would be possible, if only I could think of a film that starred both Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (last seen in "California Suite"). Damn, if only...
AFTER: For any people who complain about rotating casts, with different actors playing Batman or the Hulk, the trend goes back far past James Bond, at least as far back as Ensign Pulver. Before that, it would have been unthinkable for someone else to play Chaplin's Little Tramp character, or for more than one actor to play the Thin Man. The word "reboot" didn't even exist in the 1950's or 1960's.
But, to make a sequel to "Mister Roberts", a film in which Henry Fonda had to play a character 30 years younger than his own age, most of the principals had similarly become too old to reprise their roles. That's what you risk when you wait so long to make a sequel. No doubt this presented a number of challenges to both the filmmakers and the audience - who can do a young Jack Lemmon? Is Walter Matthau an appropriate subsitute for William Powell? How did Captain Morton gain 300 pounds and become a foot taller since the last picture?
And so began Hollywood's new motto: "Just roll with it." or was it "Fuck it, no one's going to care."? If the old cast's not available, we can just re-cast the roles, right? And then George Lazenby takes over for Sean Connery, Mark Ruffalo becomes the Hulk, and Ben Affleck gets cast as Batman. Now you know who to blame.
Putting continuity aside, this film also gives some insights into where the writers for the "M*A*S*H" TV show got some of their ideas. Oh, I figure I watched every episode of that show at one time or another while growing up, and though it was groundbreaking TV (only that show and "Hogan's Heroes" ever successfully blended war and comedy) and it's not too hard to draw a connection between the fate of Mister Roberts and that of a particular colonel from the 4077th. For that matter, "M*A*S*H" did the "surgery by radio proxy" bit years later and taught Americans how to do a tracheotomy with a jackknife and a ballpoint pen, and that traces back to Ensign Pulver doing an appendectomy with help from Doc over the radio.
For that matter, Hawkeye Pierce's still is a descendant of the Reluctant's "Jungle Juice" (an alcoholic brew with racist overtones, nice...), and the way that the main characters constantly defied authority (represented by Frank Burns and other characters) traces back here, also the constant pranking and the objectification of nurses as well.
Sure, Korea was a different war. And perhaps by 1964 audiences longed for the relative simplicity of World War II. But this film carries a similar tone of familial camaraderie among military men who also want to buck authority while carrying out their orders.
Also starring Robert Walker, Jr. (last seen in "Easy Rider"), Burl Ives (last seen in "East of Eden"), Tommy Sands, Millie Perkins, Kay Medford, Larry Hagman (last seen in "Nixon"), Peter Marshall, Jack Nicholson (last seen in "The Raven"), with cameos from Richard "Hymie" Gautier, George "Goober" Lindsay, James Coco (last seen in "The Muppets Take Manhattan", James Farentino.
RATING: 4 out of 10 pin-up girls
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