While it's nice that Shout! Factory was able to sub-license the series through NBC/Universal, McHale's Navy isn't very funny, despite a superb cast of fine character actors and character comedians. Its extra feature reuniting five cast members is warm and amusing, but the transfers (presumably provided by Universal) are substandard, making the package even less attractive.

With minor alterations, McHale's Navy is basically a water-logged Sgt. Bilko and not half as good. Set during the Second World War on the (fictional) Pacific island of Taratupa, the series follows the adventures of PT 73 skipper Lt. Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine) and his six men: Gruber (Carl Ballantine), Virgil Edwards (Edson Stroll), Happy (Gavin McLeod), "Tinker" Bell (Billy Sands, who was also in Bilko's platoon), "Chisty" (Gary Vinson), and Willy (John Wright). McHale, a former tramp steamer skipper in the region commissioned into the Navy Reserves at the start of the war, isn't going to let a little thing like a World War get in the way of his fun. Between missions, he and his men cut loose, drinking and gambling; the very first shot of McHale in the series sees him whooping it up on waterskis, drink in hand.

McHale's incorrigible ways are the bane of "nasty but firm" Captain Wallace B. Binghamton (Joe Flynn), the nasal-voice former yacht club president who with lackey Lt. Carpenter (Bob Hastings) wants to get rid of McHale and his men. In the pilot, Binghamton's hopes are raised with the arrival of McHale's new executive officer, Ensign Parker (Tim Conway), transferred in from Guadalcanal, but he turns out to be a walking disaster, whose "record reads like an encyclopedia of lost battles." Almost at once, Parker becomes McHale's agreeable patsy.

On the plus side, the show's got a great cast. Ernest Borgnine wasn't the first Oscar-winner to do a sitcom (Shirley Booth, for one, debuted as Hazel the year before); nevertheless, he brought to it a kind of classiness and verisimilitude rare in half-hour comedies (Borgnine had actually been in the Navy from 1935-45). Despite his success as Marty (1955), narrow-minded producers found it tough to think of Borgnine as anything other than a heavy, and by the end of the decade for a time he was appearing more on anthology television than in theatrical features. One of these shows was Alcoa Premiere, and a 1962 episode called "Seven Against the Sea" actually introduced Borgnine as McHale and much of the basic set-up. The difference was that show was pretty much a straight drama. For the series it was retooled into a conventional comedy.

Hastings and especially Flynn made great foils for McHale, Conway's timing was impeccable, even if his character was a generic patsy, and the supporting players, Ballantine and Sands in particular, were always fun to watch. Though shot entirely in and around the Universal lot, the backlot sets and the overall production is handsome enough, typical of the movie-like one-camera shows of that era.

But the writing just isn't there - it's positively dripping in formula comedy - despite some surprising names that crop up, from Joseph Heller and Gene L. Coon to Danny Simon and Arthur Marx. Like many '60s sitcoms, it's basically the same story week-after-week: McHale and the boys plot and scheme their way out of trouble or, to get something they want (wine, women, song), create some sort of elaborate ruse under Binghamton's watchful eye. Series producer and apparent co-creator Edward Montagne had been a supervising producer on Bilko, but without the comic sensibility of a Nat Hiken could only manage mechanical, hackneyed situations.

The show then leaned mightily on its talented cast, and though they wring what they can out of the material, in the end it just ain't enough.

Video & Audio

The transfers sourced for this first season set of McHale's Navy look at least 20 years old. The image is notably soft and play almost like standard VHS tapes. Contrast is poor and there is even some digital breakup here and there, and sporadic signs of film wear and damage. The full frame presentation is at least not time-compressed - most shows run a bit over 25 minutes - and it's in its original black and white, not colorized. Thirty-six shows are presented over five discs, 7-8 episodes per single-sided disc. There are no subtitle options.

Extra Features

The primary extra is The Crew Reunion, a letterboxed but not enhanced 19-minute featurette. In what looks like a studio's green room, Borgnine (looking good at 90), Conway, Ballantine, Hastings, and Stroll reminisce, telling stories about Joe Flynn, Borgnine's adversarial relationship with Montagne, their relatively low wages (Borgnine got just $5,000 per show), etc. They reveal some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that the island backlot set was leftover from The Ugly American, and that the PT boat in the opening titles had escorted Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" on its maiden (and only) flight. Fans of the actors will enjoy this. Also included is a better than average seven-page booklet with episode synopses and airdates.

Parting Thoughts

McHale's Navy is a bland service comedy memorable only for its game cast of players far superior to the material they have to work with. Shout! Factory's release has that nice extra, but the transfers are well below par. Nostalgia buffs may want it anyway, but are advised to Rent It first before rushing out to buy it.

** They were McHale's Navy (1964) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965), the latter notable in that its title character was completely absent: star Ernest Borgnine for some reason refused to appear in it.

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel.