I had seen this on TV a few times when I was a kid in the early '70's. I knew who Jack Lemmon was but didn't recognize Ricky Nelson. I must have been drawn to it by the title and the cartoony opening credits. It was like a Disney version of The Caine Mutiny. Jack Lemmon as a bad Navy captain. He had been a yachtsman in civilian life, so the Navy puts him in command of a small sailing ship during World War Two. The crew doesn't know what it's doing. Turns out they're on a secret mission no one was told about. It wasn't really funny and it becomes a war drama toward the end. Based at least loosely on a true story.
There was a wave of these movies---Operation Petticoat, Father Goose, Mr. Roberts among others.
Ricky Nelson has a song. With Alvy Moore from Green Acres; The Six Million Dollar Man's Richard Anderson appears briefly. There's a Japanese officer who speaks perfect English because he went to college in Ohio.
It did turn me off to any thought I might have had as a child about joining the military. They can just order you to do something and you have to do it, like climbing the mast and even "funny" officers were rotten people.
Free on Tubi.
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