Ensign Pulver ** (1964, Robert Walker Jr, Burl Ives, Walter Matthau) – Classic Movie Review 5883

Producer-director Joshua Logan’s 1964 comedy sequel stars Robert Walker Jr as Ensign Pulver, but alas he is not up to stepping into the Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winning Jack Lemmon’s shoes in the original role in the 1955 big hit Mister Roberts. To be fair, Lemmon’s shoes were big there, and comparisons are notoriously odious for the actor taking over in a sequel.

The movie proves a disappointing and cliché-ridden belated sequel to Mister Roberts, with a different cast all at sea with the roles established so charismatically in the original.

Perhaps understandably, Burl Ives can’t help making the tyrannical martinet ship’s captain sympathetic (when James Cagney’s original Captain Morton kept up a tough edge), and Walter Matthau seems an odd and uncomfortable choice to replace William Powell as Doc. To be fair, all three actors are always welcome on screen.

Broadway’s Logan directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Peter S Feibleman based on the original stage play Mister Roberts that he co-wrote with Thomas Heggen, which all started with Heggen’s novel.

Look out for Jack Nicholson in an early role, as Yeoman Dolan.

Also in the cast are Tommy Sands, Millie Perkins, Kay Medford, Larry Hagman, James Farentino, James Coco, Al Freeman Jr, Gerald S O’Loughlin, Sal Papa, Don Dorrell, Peter L Marshall, Robert Matek, Diana Sands, Dick Gautier and Joseph Marr.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5883

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