Reviews

First saw this movie on late 1950's TV, about 10 years after it was made. As a kid, I thought it was hilarious. Just watched again in 2011 and wondered if I would perceive it to be as funny as I did 50 years ago. I still love it. Not as much as a 10 year old perhaps, but Skelton can hold his own in his comedic genius through the decades. Of course the writing team of Frank & Panama also later wrote Danny Kaye's "The Court Jester" where they use the same tongue-twister rhyming lines to make hilarious running gags... and the hero's continuous use of secret code questions...to all the wrong people. Makes me want to revisit all the old Red Skelton movies of the late 40's and early 50's.

OK...OK... It's not going to win any awards! But it is a great study (listen to directors comments) on how to make a low budget ($350,000) thriller in 15 days. Shot with two Panasonic HVX-200 HD camcorders on a docked WWII Liberty ship in LA, the 15 man crew did an amazing job in the cramped sets they had to work with... which is why the lighting is minimal. But isn't that the way it's supposed to be in the typical "spooky house" (the ship) movie. The writers simply cranked the script out after visiting this museum ship...and they acknowledge that much. They simply wanted to have fun making a movie. One unintentional hilarity is the similarity to part of the plot line to "Ghostbusters".

We know why Michael Caine would take a roll in a piece of trash like this... This master actor has at least one huge folly. He is panic stricken whenever he is out of work, thinking that he'll never work again...so, he takes anything that comes along when he's finished with his last film. Sometimes it is shear garbage that comes along. It was fun watching the crew's reflections in Sir Michael's sunglasses. Didn't look like there were too many of them either. You sure this wasn't a student film. It sure looked like it. And I don't think they got a passing grade either! Bizarre production financing company too (maybe that's a clue to the cluelessness of it all). Some Industrial company. My guess is they supplied all the construction sites for free.