Product Details

• Actors: Joe Flynn, Tim Conway, Bob Hastings, Gary Vinson, Billy Sands
• Directors: Edward Montagne
• Writers: John Fenton Murray, William J. Lederer
• Producers: Edward Montagne, Si Rose
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 31, 1998
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 078321734X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,634 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flynn and Conway are hilarious turn in a classic performance, August 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mchale's Navy Joins Air Force [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I had seen this movie when I was a kid, but I had forgotten HOW funny it was. I laughed myself silly. The opening scene is a little contrived, with Binghamton blowing his cool and pushing the crew one by one into the water. But the real laughs begin when the crew, along with "Old Leadbottom," arrive in port is Australia. One of the movie's highlights is the scene with Parker trying to take Binghamton's picture and then trying to help him up the ladder. The action progresses quickly, and then next thing we know (or so it seems), Parker is the "navigator" on a DC-3, with Binghamton also stuck on board. The laughs don't stop until the movie is over.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "McHale's Navy" movie without McHale? Sure. Why not?, November 7, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mchale's Navy Joins Air Force [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you thought it was strange that the ABC situation comedy "McHale's Navy" was given the opportunity to make a theatrical film in 1964, then you might not know what to make of the decision the following year to release another film in which the title charcter played by Ernest Borgnine does not appear. Granted, Borgnine's character always seemed to working on a different level than his hair brained crew and the inept base commander, but you would have to think that having their Academy Award winning star (for "Marty") skip this sequel would have been a fatal flaw.

The two reasons it is not is because Tim Conway, as Ensigh Charles Parker and Joe Flynn as Captain Wallace B. Binghamton are still engaging in their zanny antics. The rather strange title comes from the idea that Parker is mistaken for a hot shot fighter pilot in the Air Force (which, of course, was still the Army Air Corps during World War II, but for some reason historical fidelity was not high on the producer's list). Of course, every time Parker screws up he gets promoted. Obviously, with Borgnine apparently on vacation (the series would air through 1966), Parker and Flynn get more slapstick to do, but the script by John Fenton Murray, based on William J. Lederer's story, actually slips in some satire to go along with the physical comedy.

Is 1965's "McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force" better than the 1964 "McHale's Navy" film? Well, yes and no. This one is actually funnier because of the free reign Conway and Flynn have, which is a good thing, but getting so far away from the original series (and its star) still bugs me. But despite that potentially fatal flaw this odd little film is actually an enjoyable experience for fans of the series. For others it is a reminder of what military situation comedies were like between "Sgt. Bilko" and "Hogan's Heroes" (i.e., before "M*A*S*H").

Actually, that last aside should be more specific in reference to the early couple of seasons for "M*A*S*H" when the series was very much in the mold of Bilko/McHale/Hogan. It was not until the classic episode "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet" that we first saw how "M*A*S*H" could become television's first true dramedy.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sequel Movie Without McHale ?, March 4, 2009

By 

Bomb Man58 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mchale's Navy Joins Air Force [VHS] (VHS Tape)

With the success of the first McHale's Navy movie, it seems Universal were keen to follow up with a sequel.

This second movie has LTCOMD McHale (Ernest Borgnine) absent from the film; as well as Gruber (Carl Ballantine, which is not explained). However the crew of the PT-73 seem to take back-stage in this second movies as Ensign Parker and Captain Binghamton end up taking over for most of the film's length.

With everything now left to Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) to command, the crew sets off to Brisbane, Australia with Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) for a conference. After exchanging uniforms with the crew of a visiting Russian ship, the crew of the 73 disappear into town. Parker gets involved with the Russian crew, now in the uniforms of the 73 crew, who also go into town and end up getting horribly drunk in a downtown pub. Attempting to escape the clutches of the NKVD, who mistake Parker (now in Russian officer's uniform) for a Russian sailor, Parker and Christy get involved in a mix up with an Army Air Corps Lieutenant, who is the son of General Harkness, and ends up wearing his uniform. The Air Corps officer (Lt. Harkness) is knocked out by the accurate swing of Captain Binghamton throwing a shaving tackle at the Lieutenant, who is carted off to the Russian ship by the NKVD. Parker in the meantime, wearing the Air Corps uniform and mistaken as Lt. Harkness, stumbles through a number of mishaps that see him continually getting promoted.

Binghamton and Parker wind up in a C-47, with a jeep as cargo, and they both end up in the jeep; which falls out of the aircraft and is suspended by ropes, just as it flies over the Japanese fleet. The plane neatly deposits the jeep right in the midst of a conference pondering the possible location of the missing Japanese fleet. The movie ends with Binghamton seeing Parker sitting at the President's desk and thinking he's been promoted (again) to the top job.

I enjoyed this movie just like the TV series and the original movie, which was made a year before (1964). Both movies are in colour, whereas the TV series was filmed in black and white. For those of us who enjoy our McHale's Navy, this movie is great. It just needs to be re-released now onto DVD. As a late (2010) addendum, Madman Video in Australia has released both movies in a two-DVD pack to complete the change of all the McHale's Navy series now to DVD.