The Silver Screen Oasis

I see a Jack Lemmon DVD collection is being delivered on June 9th, including GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (ah, finally to replace a well-worn VHS tape on my shelf!), UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE (Jack's oft-stated 'least favorite film'), PHFFT (with Judy Holliday), THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY (with Kim Novak) and OPERATION MAD BALL (a film I don't know).

I've grown to enjoy PHFFT and LANDLADY. YUM YUM was once enjoyable but hearing Jack's criticism of it skewed my own. Fun in places, but largely boring to me now.

Does anyone know OP MAD BALL? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050805/

The cast is impressive - Ernie Kovacs, Kathryn Grant, Mickey Rooney, Arthur O'Connell, Dick York, James Darren - but some of those filled a good many duds, too. Arthur has usually been the one that gave me good reasons to see his films, while James Darren has often been the counterweight in his.

I last saw OPERATION MADBALL when it first came out 1957 and I seem to recall I liked it, but I dare say in 52 years my taste may have changed a little so I'd be interested in revisiting it again if for no other reason than that. So I guess that's best I'm going to give you what Leonard Maltin says about it:

"Weak service comedy about soldiers planning a wild party off base. Dull sketches, few gags O'Connell comes off better than the supposed comedians in the film"

Still with that cast it might be interesting. Hopefully my local library will buy the set and I'll get a chance to see for free.