Don't Give Up the Ship

Jerry Lewis's best film work as both a performer and director was still ahead of him when he signed on for 1959's Don't Give Up the Ship, a less-than-inspired potboiler comedy. Lewis plays U.S. Navy Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII, who is accused by military brass and a powerful politician of having stolen a destroyer escort ship a decade-plus earlier at the tail end of World War II. Everybody wants to know where the vessel is, but Steckler hasn't got a clue, since the last time he laid eyes on it he was taken captive by Japanese soldiers on an uncharted Pacific island. Gale Gordon and Robert Middleton do journeyman service as government figures exasperated by Steckler's buffoonery, and Dina Merrill costars as Ensign Benson, who is assigned to help Steckler and grows increasingly sympathetic to his haplessness. The film's running joke finds Steckler newly married and anxious to commence a carnal honeymoon, yet constantly being interrupted by shore patrol officers. Directed in black-and-white by Norman Taurog (who also made several of Lewis's pictures costarring Dean Martin), Don't Give Up the Ship is scripted as a succession of setups culminating in Lewis's trademark shtick…and not much else. Optional. (T. Keogh)