User Reviews

This is a comedy caper set in Venice, Italy. But for some opening scenes of a rocket launch, a Navy ship, and canal scenes of Venice, it was all filmed at MGM studios and off the coast of California. The Navy ship has tracked a missile and the return of its nose cone. And it happens to be somewhere near or in the Mediterranean. The ship will anchor near Venice where the men will have a leave. Lt Ferguson Howard convinces the lead scientist on board, Jason Eldridge, to use the onboard computer "brain" to break the bank at the roulette wheel.

From there on, a light comedy and romance story develops. Fergie and the guys in the hotel have to watch and record all the turns of the roulette wheel and flash those back to the ship for a sailor in the secure computer room. He then feeds the computer and flashes back the bets to make from the computer. But these messages are all jumbled so that anyone who might know Morse Code and notices them wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on.

The film has a good cast. Steve McQueen is Fergie and Jim Hutton is the "brain's" caretaker, Eldridge. They mastermind the get-rich-quick scheme. Familiar actress Paula Prentiss gets in on the action as Pam Dunstan, a wealthy socialite when she bumps into her old friend and flame, Eldridge, in the very hotel where the caper is to take place. And a new actress, Brigid Bazlen, plays Julie Fitch. This was just her fourth film in a very short career. Adding to the comedy and the best humor are two other well-known actors. Jack Weston is a Navy signalmen called to investigate signals between the ship and somewhere in the hotel. And, academy award winner, Dean Jagger, plays Admiral Fitch, Julie's father.

There are no great zingers here, but the dialog is good and goes along with the antics. The most amusing part is that the Russians also see the signals from the ship and are flummoxed at not being able to decipher the code. Remember, this is at the height of the Cold War, so spoofing the Soviet Union was always good for laughs. Their top crypto-analyst suggests that the numbers that don't go any higher than 36 might refer to a roulette wheel. Well, the top Commie can't have such a blockhead around so he gets hauled off for Siberia or execution. Of course, the Admiral's American team is confused by the ship signals as well. Here are two of the better lines in the film.

Julie Fitch, "Navy daughter all her life, cannot be a Navy wife."

Lt. Ferguson Howard, "Sir, would you take the word of an office and a gentleman?" Admiral Fitch, "Where is he?"

A couple of things caught my eye in the cast - about actors who died fairly young As it turns out, four of the top cast of this film died by age 52. That was Jack Mullaney, who plays Lt. Beauregard Gilliam, who died of a stroke in 1982. Steve McQueen lived just to age 50 when he died of a heart attack in 1980. Jim Hutton died in 1979 of liver cancer at age 45. And Bazlen, who was just 17 in this film, died the youngest, at age 44, of cancer in 1989.

Fans of any of the star cast should enjoy this film. And, military veterans should get some chuckles out of the caper the Navy guys try to pull, and the shenanigans they get into.