What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? *** (1966, James Coburn, Dick Shawn, Sergio Fantoni) – Classic Movie Review 10,284

Director Blake Edwards’s 1966 comedy What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Is an amusing, lightly over-played satire about World War Two, as Lieutenant Christian (James Coburn) and Captain Cash (Dick Shawn) lead their troops to capture the Italian town of Valerno, in Campania (southwestern Italy), only to find the locals happy to give in as long as they can continue to drink wine and play football.

Stereotypically, the Italians are comic, cowardly and cuddly, while the Americans are quite willing to give in to the excesses of this new life and forget the fighting.

Edwards directs and produces the film from a lively, if overlong script by The Exorcist‘s William Peter Blatty, based on a story by Blake Edwards and Maurice Richlin.

And, when it occasionally stalls, the movie gets by on the comic charm and talent of Coburn and Shawn, plus the able performing of the veteran stalwarts (Aldo Ray, Harry Morgan, Carroll O’Connor).

Also in the cast are Sergio Fantoni, Giovanna Ralli, Leon Askin, Henry Rico, Vito Scotti, Kurt Kreuger, William Bryant, Jay Novello, and Art Lewis.

 © Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,284

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