Life aboard most Navy ships is not only not a lot of fun but leaves little chance for adventure. Henry Fonda's Lt. Roberts wants off a supply ship and a battle assignment, but as is accurate, the Captain rules the roost.

My favorite...
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Life aboard most Navy ships is not only not a lot of fun but leaves little chance for adventure. Henry Fonda's Lt. Roberts wants off a supply ship and a battle assignment, but as is accurate, the Captain rules the roost.

My favorite scene is probably the gang mixing up grain alcohol, Coke, and iodine to impress the local girls of an island port. At the same time, there is no denying that this is an adaptation of a play - dialog reigns supreme. Cagney is just OK as the gruff ship Captain, his most pronounced distinctiveness is not that effective for this particular story. But there are lots of nicely-done individual episodic scenes in the movie.

The mixture of comedy with boredom and frustration is a nice approximation of real wartime service for many men, and I like it. But it's not great in the film realm to my mind.