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The Horizontal Lieutenant

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Overview

The Horizontal Lieutenant is a 1962 American romantic comedy war film, based on the 1961 novel The Bottletop Affair by Gordon Cotler who was a Japanese interpreter for US Army Intelligence during World War II. It is a military comedy about an unfortunate army intelligence lieutenant who finds himself isolated on a remote island army outpost during World War II. It stars Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss and was directed by Richard Thorpe. It was the last of four teamings between Hutton and Prentiss following Where the Boys Are, The Honeymoon Machine and Bachelor in Paradise. Plot 2nd Lt. Merle Wye, an Army Intelligence officer stationed in Hawaii, is rendered horizontal when struck in the head by a foul ball while playing for his unit's baseball team. In the post hospital he is attracted to Lt. Molly Blue, a nurse he once knew in college. His superior (and manager of the team) orders the inept Merle to distant Rotohan, a Pacific island liberated from Japanese occupation some months before, ostensibly to relieve Lt. Billy Monk, who has been unable to capture a Japanese holdout called Kobayashi suspected of pilfering military supplies. However the coach really wants Monk, a former professional baseball player, for his team. By claiming to be ordered to dangerous duty Merle tries to seduce Blue; when she discovers the ruse, she barely gives him the time of day. On Rotohan, Merle and his Nisei interpreter (and lothario) Sgt. Roy Tada team up with Monk to flush out the wily thief hiding in the hills. Using a reluctant Tada as a "spy" they discover that Kobayashi has been stealing the supplies, all creature comforts, to feed and clothe his pregnant girlfriend. But Merle is distracted when Blue is also assigned to his camp. With the Navy, in the form of obnoxious Cmdr. Jeremiah Hammerslag, also hunting Kobayashi, Merle is threatened by his new superior, Col. Korotny, with another transfer if he does not capture Kobayashi soon—this time to an even more remote rock with only six other soldiers as company.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Overview

The Horizontal Lieutenant is a 1962 American romantic comedy war film, based on the 1961 novel The Bottletop Affair by Gordon Cotler who was a Japanese interpreter for US Army Intelligence during World War II. It is a military comedy about an unfortunate army intelligence lieutenant who finds himself isolated on a remote island army outpost during World War II. It stars Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss and was directed by Richard Thorpe. It was the last of four teamings between Hutton and Prentiss following Where the Boys Are, The Honeymoon Machine and Bachelor in Paradise. Plot 2nd Lt. Merle Wye, an Army Intelligence officer stationed in Hawaii, is rendered horizontal when struck in the head by a foul ball while playing for his unit's baseball team. In the post hospital he is attracted to Lt. Molly Blue, a nurse he once knew in college. His superior (and manager of the team) orders the inept Merle to distant Rotohan, a Pacific island liberated from Japanese occupation some months before, ostensibly to relieve Lt. Billy Monk, who has been unable to capture a Japanese holdout called Kobayashi suspected of pilfering military supplies. However the coach really wants Monk, a former professional baseball player, for his team. By claiming to be ordered to dangerous duty Merle tries to seduce Blue; when she discovers the ruse, she barely gives him the time of day. On Rotohan, Merle and his Nisei interpreter (and lothario) Sgt. Roy Tada team up with Monk to flush out the wily thief hiding in the hills. Using a reluctant Tada as a "spy" they discover that Kobayashi has been stealing the supplies, all creature comforts, to feed and clothe his pregnant girlfriend. But Merle is distracted when Blue is also assigned to his camp. With the Navy, in the form of obnoxious Cmdr. Jeremiah Hammerslag, also hunting Kobayashi, Merle is threatened by his new superior, Col. Korotny, with another transfer if he does not capture Kobayashi soon—this time to an even more remote rock with only six other soldiers as company.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).