Truly Dreadful Film

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A frisky troop of American soldiers take over a Sicilian town and turn it upside down, even with the yearly festival going on, and create a separate war all of its own. Fooling both a naive major and a trusting general, the confusion and chaos just increases, leading to the most absurd if international incidents.Image Hope and Crosby in "The Road to the Front Line", and that's what you've got in this sometimes juvenile anti-war farce that reeks of the zany mind of its director, Blake Edwards, often utilizing sight gags straight out of the "Pink Panther" series. Repetitive gags of soldiers falling into various locations of water dominate this, with leading players James Coburn and Dick Shawn screaming throughout. Future Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and future Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) are the befuddled officers, Morgan coincidentally named Potts. Future "Hogan's Heroes" general Leon Askin is the head Nazi invading Sicily here, forecasting his future T.V. role. This basically is a big screen "Hogan's Heroes" with a different setting and slightly more adult humor. Still, it's rather pedestrian, although Morgan is very funny. Too bad he never went down Lloyd Bridges territory by appearing in the vast number of "Airplane!" style spoofs later in his career.

Gad, this is an awful waste of time. That this mess passed for farce, wit, and sophistication seems incomprehensible. Except for Aldo Ray, none of the actors seems suited for his role. The script lacks even a faint scent of insight. Blake Edwards made worse films—"The Great Race" and "10"come to mind. Mr. Blake never seems to assume responsibility for his lack of depth or his ineptitude. He ought to have retired with this film. Unfortunately, he did not. He made boring movies.I find it almost impossible to comprehend that Philippe de Broca's elegant and tender film "King of Hearts" had release the same year as this mess. The worst aspect of the film is the awful score by Henry Mancini. It has nothing to do with war or anything else for that matter.This picture is simply awful. Avoid it.

If you've never seen "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?", you owe it to yourself to pick it up (or at least ask Netflix to stock it!). Great, wacky fun, memorable characters/situations, heavy drinking, babes, and catacombs!! What's not to love???Stars some of the greats: James Coburn (Magnificent Seven, Our Man Flint, etc.), Harry Morgan (who kept up the military theme as Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H), and Carroll O'Connor (whom you might better recognize as Archie Bunker). It's got all the energy and cleverness of "Animal House" without the "Porky's"-style humor - this is a movie you can watch with your kids!I've been looking for it for years. Rent it. You'll be glad you did.

The Sixties produced a slew of funny war comedies demonstrating that WWII was basically good fun for all concerned, rather than being peopled with the kind of angst-filled, hand-wringing adolescents you see nowadays in movies like Memphis Belle and Saving Private Ryan. Edwards would go on to fantastic success with the Pink Panther series and writer Blatty is notable for his later work, The Exorcist. Edwards draws on a solid cast, including veterans Carroll O'Connor, Harry Morgan and Aldo Ray, without whom no war movie is complete. Italian star Fantoni turns in a meatball performance as Oppo but Dick Shawn steals the show with the best role of his career. Although a little slow in spots, Blake Edwards nonetheless gets where he's going and the result is a fine, though underrated, entry in the genre. The interactions between Shawn and Fantoni are worth the price of admission alone.