Sail A Crooked Ship (1961)

A young man (Robert Wagner) wants to save a broken down ship from being destroyed so he hires a company to restore the ship so it can be used for cargo. But the man (Ernie Kovacs in his last film) he hires to to do the work is really the head of a gang of bumbling thieves that plan to use the ship as a getaway in a bank robbery. The script isn't half bad, some of the situations and lines are quite funny and the cast all seems game. So why doesn't it work? I'll chalk it up to lousy direction. The director is Irving Brecher who's a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay to MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS. He's only directed two other films. The actors aren't directed very well, they seem to be overcompensating as if pushing too hard for the laughs. I kept thinking how much better Blake Edwards could do with this kind of material. Perhaps the funniest moment is unintentional: Dolores Hart takes off her bra and gives it to Wagner to use as a sling shot but after she removes her bra, it can be clearly seen that she's wearing a bra under her sweater! There's a hurricane sequence that very well done. With Carolyn Jones, Frankie Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Jesse White and Harvey Lembeck.