Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie Review

Hogans, anti-heroes?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 2, 2021

Operation Mad Ball doesn’t seem to be a particularly well remembered outing in Jack Lemmon’s vaunted filmography, but this 1957 effort has a perhaps surprising number of connections to other pieces featuring the venerable Academy Award winning actor. Those connections begin (chronologically, at least) in fact with the film that Lemmon won his first Academy Award for, the often raucous “service comedy” Mister Roberts, wherein Lemmon portrayed the scheming Ensign Pulver, who was frequently the bane of his commanding officers’ existence. Lemmon’s character in Operation Mad Ball is rather similar in that regard, though in this particular “service comedy”, it’s the Army rather than the Navy that’s being skewered. The focal character in this particular enterprise is a private (the Army's version of an Ensign) called Hogan (Jack Lemmon, of course), which is exactly the same name of the character Lemmon portrayed in the recently reviewed Under the Yum-Yum Tree, another of a quartet of Lemmon features Sony-Columbia has recently released on Blu-ray. It’s actually not that hard to imagine that the “two” Hogans are in fact the same guy, simply at different periods of their life, since this Hogan, like the one in the 1963 film, is an inveterate horndog known for “chasing skirts”. Operation Mad Ball was the first feature film for Ernie Kovacks, here portraying one of those put upon commanding officers (a captain named Lock), and Kovacs’ wife (by that time, widow, actually) Edie Adams was Lemmon’s main love interest in Under the Yum-Yum Tree. Under the Yum-Yum Tree’s probably less than memorable title song was warbled in the film by James Darren, who is on hand here as another private hanging around Hogan. Finally, in terms of these “six degrees of separation” between various movies with Lemmon, Operation Mad Ball was co-written by a then largely unknown Blake Edwards, who of course would go on to direct Lemmon to one of Lemmon’s Best Actor Academy Award nominations in Days of Wine and Roses, and reteam with Lemmon a few years later for the well remembered farce The Great Race.

Hogan is on guard duty as the film opens in a kind of precursor to the field hospital in M*A*S*H, albeit in this case in France immediately in the wake of World War II in 1945. The conflict has actually ended, but there are still quite a few soldiers, doctors and nurses hanging around in the aftermath, and the central conceit of the film, one which may in fact raise the hackles of the more ardent feminists in the audience, is that at least some of the nurses have been granted officer status, meaning enlisted guys like Hogan supposedly need to show them proper deference. Hogan is on guard duty as the story begins, and when Lock brings newly arrived Lieutenant Betty Bixby (Kathryn Grant) to the post canteen for a little R&R, a relatively innocent interchange between Hogan and Bixby enrages Lock to the point that he decides to have Hogan court martialed.

A colonel named Rausch (Arthur O'Connell) more kindly disposed toward Hogan than Lock is prevents that from happening, but Lock is obviously on the warpath (no pun intended) to teach Hogan a lesson, assigning him to duty in the camp morgue. In the meantime, Hogan is involved in any number of subterfuges. He's attempting to get one of his buddies, Corporal Berryman (Roger Smith), some "alone" time with Berryman's main squeeze, another of the camp's nurses. That need, along with Hogan's plan to have an "off campus" party where officer nurses and enlisted men can perhaps enjoy each other's company despite the "rules", leads Hogan to a deal with a local French woman named Madame LaFour (Jeanne Manet), who is willing to "rent out" her facility for both assignations and the titular "Mad Ball". Hogan is also not above misleading Betty to gain her attention, pretending (courtesy of some X-rays belonging to a General) that he has a debilitating ulcer that needs regular checking.

There are a number of other subplots woven into this arguably overstuffed enterprise, including some featuring co-stars Mickey Rooney and Dick York, and as a result the film sometimes can feel bloated rather than the typically brisk ambience that frequently accompanies farce. The film is genial and features a number of fun performances, but it's frankly never all that funny. Perhaps because it takes place in the aftermath of battle, it also doesn't really have the scabrous subtext of some other "service comedies", including the aforementined Mister Roberts and (probably even more so) M*A*S*H*.

Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Operation Mad Ball is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Of the two black and white features released by Sony-Columbia as part of their quartet of Lemmon films (the other one being Phffft), this one has weathered the vagaries of age related wear and tear at least somewhat better. There are still signs of damage, mostly in the form of rather minor scratches, white flecks and the like, but for the most part, whatever element was used is in rather good condition, all things considered. Detail levels are frequently quite pleasing, and there's pretty substantial shadow detail in a number of (supposed) nighttime shots. As with one of the color Lemmon films released recently by Sony-Columbia, Under the Yum-Yum Tree, there can be optical dissolves where the image quality looks pretty ragged. There are also some unexpected but brief downturns in quality that are unrelated to things like opticals, as seen in screenshot 19. My score is 3.75.

Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Operation Mad Ball features a pretty boisterous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. Kind of surprisingly, it doesn't look like Sammy Davis, Jr. got an official credit for singing the swingin' title tune, and that, along with some later music (which is suspiciously more rock 'n' roll oriented) sounds full bodied and problem free. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 4:25) features some funny shtick from Ernie Kovacks.

Operation Mad Ball Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Operation Mad Ball is a middling comedy that delivers a few laughs, but which never really attains the same giddy heights that some of the best Lemmon laugh fests do. It's fun to see Ernie Kovacks marauding through his role as a martinet officer, and the supporting cast here features all sorts of people who will be familiar to Baby Boomers in particular. Technical merits are generally solid, for those who are considering a purchase.