A Private’s Affair ** (1959, Sal Mineo, Christine Carère, Barry Coe, Gary Crosby, Barbara Eden, Terry Moore, Jim Backus, Jessie Royce Landis) – Classic Movie Review 9860

Director Raoul Walsh’s 1959 comedy A Private’s Affair is a story of military mayhem, with a trio of naughty young servicemen – US Army private Luigi J Maresi (Sal Mineo), Jerry Morgan (Barry Coe) and Mike Conroy (Gary Crosby) – in trouble after drugged, hospitalised Jerry (Coe) is married by mistake to Elizabeth T Chapman (Jessie Royce Landis), but redeemed when they are roped into a nationwide army TV talent show.

Director Raoul Walsh’s innocuous, shaky 1959 would-be zany comedy with songs boasts a likeable, hard-working cast, whose efforts to raise laughs and entertain are infectious.

But Winston Miller’s silly, trivial script (based on a story by Ray Livingston Murphy) is hardly good material for tough action director Walsh.

Also in the cast are Christine Carère, Barbara Eden, Terry Moore, Jim Backus, Robert Burton, Bob Denver, Alan Hewitt, Tige Andrews, Ray Montgomery, Rudolph Anders, and Debbie Joyce.

There are three songs, ‘If You’re Willing to Be Mine’, ’36-24-36′ and most notably ‘The Same Old Army’, all music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Mineo gets to show off his drumming skills, as he does in The Gene Krupa Story, as Luigi is a talented jazz drummer.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9860

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