Simply A Masterpiece

Crappy film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

this has always been one of my favorite Disney comedies. i've thought this film was really funny since i saw it as kid in the old days at the neighborhood movie theater. i still think 'One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing' is Disney's best live action comedy, but if you love the irreverent, zany, slapstick approach Disney the old school Disney films brought to comedy than 'Crusoe U.S.N.' has more than enough to offer.this is one of those special Disney classics that was successful and well liked back in it's time but now has pretty much been forgotten. even by many Disney fans. that's really a shame because the film has such a strong Disney look, feel and lots of the old school Disney charm, as well as 'Mary Poppins' Dick Van Dyke, that you would think Disney fans would be more curious about the film than they are.it could be because there's not a lot to the film. it's basically a zany Disneyfied twist on the old 'Robinson Crusoe' story with a contemporary spin put on it by ol' Retlaw Yensid himself. there's also a lot of hardcore silliness involving a space astronaut monkey and women's right's for his girl Wednesday. enough to try the patience of any sensible person with a minimal sense of humour.one of the very best scenes involves Crusoe bailing from his jet plane and parachuting into the water where he has to survive in a small blow up raft while being attacked by a shark. it's straight out of a Donald Duck and Goofy cartoon. or a naval survival training film yet.whatever you may think of this Disney Komic's intellectual merits, it is pure Disney. just go ask ol' Retlaw Yensid. and it's full of more than it's share of gut belly haw haws.

As I've said before, I will go just about anywhere, cinematically, for a chance to hear Nancy Kwan's charming Hong Kong accent and to see her fabulous zygomatic bones. Case in point: "Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.," a silly but entertaining Disney flick from 1966. In this one, the titular Navy fighter pilot, played by the ever-likable Dick van Dyke, is forced down into the drink of the South Pacific and, like his namesake, washes ashore on a deserted island. In the film's first half, Robin builds himself a house, discovers a decades-old Japanese submarine wreck and finds another castaway: the astro chimp Floyd! In the latter half, he finds an island mate of a more toothsome nature, a native girl who he dubs Wednesday (even though her pidgin English is perfectly fine and she's quite capable of revealing her true name), played by our Nancy, natch. And then Crusoe gets embroiled in a battle between Wednesday and dozens of her gal pals, versus her headhunter father and the devil god Kabuna. Anyway, van Dyke gives a broadly comedic performance, Floyd offers up some of the best simian thesping that I've ever seen (just look at his reaction shots during a poker game!), and Akim Tamiroff, in his role of headhunter Tanamashu, is a caricatured embarrassment. And Nancy? She is just adorable, never cuter than when playing charades in one segment; van Dyke's desire to leave his island paradise with Wednesday as his bride really does stretch the viewer's credulity past the breaking point. Six years after her yummy "Suzie Wong" debut, Nancy Kwan, a gorgeous Eurasian, was still one of the sexiest actresses that ANY continent had to offer; heck, she's still a looker today, at the age of 71! Besides some good performances, the picture provides some situations that are so very stoopid they're actually pretty funny (such as when Robin laboriously builds a sextant to determine his bearings, only to have it report that he's somewhere between Elmira, New York and Muncie, Indiana!), as well as some very attractive scenery (it was shot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai). The fifth-highest-grossing picture of 1966, the film was nonetheless critically drubbed but remains fun escapism 45 years later. It is an absolute must for all fans of Nancy Kwan and a perfect film to watch with your favorite 8-year-old....

I too, am very nostalgic for this movie, and I would love to see it again. Is it available on DVD or tape? Why don't they re-release it? Who owns it? Disney, or did they sell it? As far as I remember, there were only two characters in the movie - and a monkey, I believe. It was very funny, but I imagine that I have hyped it up in my mind so much over the past four decades that I will be let down when (if) I ever see it again. (It is a children's movie...) Was it Dick Van Dyke's first movie? I wonder why they didn't do a sequel - was he rescued? See, I can't remember. I know he had a cool mailbox-type-rig on which he slid his message in a bottle down to the ocean, and I remember he argued a lot with the Girl Friday.

This is an all time classic Disney flick, and TOTALLY underrated. I used to watch this all night long when I was sick. The humor and silliness of the film always made me feel better. Now, as an adult, I see so much more in the film. Of course you have Dick Van Dyke, who is a comic genius, who steals the show with his physical comedy, but underneath it, the film takes on some serious issues. I've used the film to teach about the women's rights movement in the USA, and even to explain the spread of democratic ideals, and the effect it can have on a society. Really! The most important thing is that this is a wholesome, family fun comedy. It makes hardened teenagers laugh, and I always get comments about how good it is. They always say "I thought it was going to be stupid, but it was really ________ (good, funny, cute, fun, fill in your own positive). High praise indeed! I was frequently told that "The guy from Mary Poppins is funny, but Floyd steals the show!" I absolutely recommend this flick. It is one of the all time best!