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The first must-see film of the year.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The acting in this movie is really good.

If you are unaware of what "Sgt. Deadhead" is, it is a 1965 American International Frankie/Annette movie w/out Annette, sending an idiotic pilot into space with a monkey. Other than Eve Arden and a cast full of famous comic faces from TV (including Gale Gordon, who happens to appear in "Rally 'Round the Flag"), it is mostly forgettable. But, with the way "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys" starts, it seems like this Cinemascope sophisticated comedy about the lives of a classy Long Island couple is going to actually be really good. That it is for 3/4 of the movie, and features a really sexy Paul Newman and a genuinely funny Joan Collins. In the film, Newman is a seemingly happily married man, with a wife (Joanne Woodward) and two children, but his wife is so involved in the community's do-gooder activities, they can't make time to go off on a much needed second honeymoon together. That's where Ms. Collins comes in, as the very glamorous next door neighbor, neglected by her own husband. She sets her sights on Newman, and in a very hysterical sequence, the two of them get rip-roaringly drunk and spend an evening together. Whether or not they get down is never revealed, and can only be assumed. But Newman and Collins seem to be having so much fun in this sequence, and he gets to lighten up a bit after dealing with Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie the Cat in the same year's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".Acting wise, Collins easily steals the film. If Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter acted this way in 1958, she never got to show it when she came back to Denver on TV's "Dynasty" 23 years later. Collins proves herself to be an outstanding comedian, something most glamour queens of her stature never had the chance to do. Newman and Woodward never had the chance on screen to be a Burton and Taylor, as Woodward, obviously trained for the stage, wasn't as magnetic on screen in romantic parts as she was in sheer drama such as "Three Faces of Eve", "Rachel, Rachel", and "Summer Wishes, Summer Dreams". Newman, one of the most handsome men in films of the 50's and 60's, sometimes seems embarrassed by the comedy he has to do here, but Collins' light-hearted manner in their scenes together helps lighten him up.There are tons of things to recommend about this film, but the last quarter is not one of them. Its like a delicious cake frosted with a sugarless topping that disappoints overall. Some fun character players have nice bits, but Jack Carson's obnoxious army officer is not one of his better roles. However, as a good-looking film in delicious technicolor, it still is a lot of fun. This would have ranked a lot higher in my book had the ending been less sitcomish and more glamorous.

Playing his first comedy in "Rally, 'Round the Flag, Boys!" Newman was in the expert hands of Leo McCarey, who had directed Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers… The Newmans are hard1y in that class, and the film is one of McCarey's lesser efforts, but it's often a refreshing reminder of thirties screwball farce as well as a frequently incisive satire on suburban life… Newman is a typical Connecticut commuter with a good job in Manhattan, whose wife (Woodward) spends all her time in community affairs, leaving him frustrated, and whose two sons are so hypnotized by television they hard1y notice him—so he escapes with alcohol and daydreams…When the Army schedules a top secret base for their town, the couple are on opposing sides: she heads the protest committee; he, a reserve officer, is "drafted" as public relations man to win over the town… Their marriage really goes downhill when she catches him in a compromising (but innocent) situation with a sexy neighbor (Joan Collins). Newman is often charming, but generally, in a role Jack Lemmon would have walked through, he overacts outrageously, trying so hard to be funny…Truly, some of the gags situations are forced, as when the drunken Newman and Collins dance the Cha Cha, swing on chandeliers, and fall down stairs; or when Newman is caught, literally with his pants down, turning away the predatory Collins and trying to explain to the outraged Woodward… But even Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have made something of these scenes… The Newmans are reduced to grimacing, exaggerated gestures and extreme over-reactions…The Newmans were still young, but they played such older-generation types that a teenaged couple (Dwayne Hickman and Tuesday Weld) were added for the younger audience… Incredibly, Hickman, who does an inventive caricature of an American teenager, plays it as Marlon Brando! Imitating Brando's "Wild One" performance, he mumbles, stutters, and ambles about with the familiar anguished look

Opie, Tom Gilson,was my brother,so I went to see the movie and I never looked at it again in all these years. Sorry! it was bad. I'm told I have to write 10 lines so I'll put a little trivia in. Tom and Tuesday Weld were to be " introduced " in this picture and Tom was told to take Tuesday to the premiere but Tom said no he was going with Joan Collins, and he did and because he did only Tuesday Weld was Introduced. I found this very funny back then and still do. The movie, while the concept was a funny one, and the actors in it were impressive but some how it just did'nt come out funny.The continuity was abstract, at best,it was like I was watching 2 different movies at the same time,each running into the other. Sorry, Bob Gilson

Max Shulman was an absolutely brilliant comic writer/satirist ("The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "Anybody Got a Match?", etc.). In the mid-50s he published "Rally 'Round The Flag, Boys!" taking on everything from Madison Avenue, the New Haven Railroad, the U.S. Air Force to the space race in a hilarious farce that shows how seemingly unconnected lives, priorities and events can converge to produce a disaster of epic proportions. Even little league gets a drubbing at his hands.This movie took the title and many of the book's characters. For some reason, the writers and producers chose to discard everything else.Newman could have been GREAT as Harry Bannerman, harried Peter Pan-type account exec facing the prospect of fatherhood and settling down. Unfortunately, the script sabotaged him. Joanne Woodward is relegated to standing around looking hastled and confused-- probably trying to decide exactly how she's going to kill her agent for getting her into this dog. Veterans like Gale Gordon, Jack Carson and Murvyn Vye are similarly wasted.The only cast member who doesn't disappoint, strangely enough, is Tuesday Weld as Comfort Goodpasture . . . but then, her character didn't have much to do in the book either, come to think of it.This is what happens when Hollywood bends over backwards to avoid offending anyone . . . after having purchased the rights to a book that's guaranteed to offend just about everyone.There is a character named Hoffa in this film. Oscar, not James. Probably the best thing that could be done with this turkey of a movie would be to take the master copy, seal it up in an empty bottle of "Newman's Own," and bury it about six feet under Hoffa. James, not Oscar.