Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 20, 2015

Dick Shawn really should have been a bigger film star than he ended up being. As it stands, Shawn is remembered chiefly for two eccentric hipsters he played in 1960s era comedies, the proto-stoner Sylvester Marcus in Stanley Kramer’s all star farce It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (also available on Blu-ray from Criterion), and the foppish Lorenzo St. DuBois (also known by the entirely fitting acronym “LSD”) in Mel Brooks’ iconic (original) The Producers, the character whose portrayal of a certain mustachioed Fuhrer makes Springtime for Hitler an unexpected (and unwanted) hit. Shawn’s manic screen presence in these two films might seem to suggest a “one note” performer whose relative lack of big screen stardom might be attributed to a dearth of range. How interesting, then, that Blake Edwards’ lesser remembered 1966 comedy What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? posits Shawn as the “straight arrow” captain of a ragtag bunch of World War II Americans who end up capturing an Italian village without one shot being fired, only to end up in an increasingly farcical series of misadventures when the villagers and their attendant Italian forces insist that an annual festival be allowed to proceed despite the hostilities of the Sicilian campaign. This unexpected piece of casting is even more remarkable when it’s contrasted with that of Shawn’s co-star James Coburn, an actor whose quirkiness consigned him to a whole series of outré roles during this era, including the two quasi-James Bond knockoffs, Our Man Flint and In Like Flint, as well as flaky proto-hipster fare like The President’s Analyst. Coburn plays a bit closer to his mid-sixties type in What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, as a lieutenant who simply wants to “go with the flow,” as it were, letting the natives go about their regular business without having the vagaries of a global conflict get too much in the way.

Traditional farce is typically built out of what initially appear as relatively small blocks of ludicrous plot points, blocks which are then assembled into an increasingly manic structure that hopefully provokes increasing hilarity as it goes along. Blake Edwards’ farcically inclined films (and there are a glut of them) sometimes tend to overlook that first part, zooming instead to the frenetic element as quickly as possible, perhaps not trusting that a slow accretion of less overtly comedic aspects can pay appropriate dividends. That tends to be the case with What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, though to Edwards’ credit, there is at least a bit of relatively calm setup attended to in the film’s early going before things start going to hell in a handbasket.

Captain Lionel Cash (Dick Shawn) is the kind of straight arrow officer who does things by the book, something that is perhaps surprisingly annoying to Cash’s superior, General Bolt (Carroll O’Connor). Bolt tasks Cash with liberating an Italian village as a part of the Allies’ Sicilian campaign, but even Bolt thinks Cash could stand to loosen up a little. Bolt can’t even get Cash to relent and call Bolt by his first name, something the General craves to hear after having spent too much time on the battlefield, where he’s obviously always referred to by rank. When Cash shows up to meet the (of course) ragtag group of men he’s been ordered to command, he’s shocked at how undisciplined and lackadaisical they all seem, something that’s personified by their putative leader, Lieutenant Christian (James Coburn).

The actual “campaign” Cash and his men undertake is surprisingly short lived. When they get to their assigned village, it appears to be abandoned. Only when Edwards delivers the first of his patented sight gags is it revealed that the entire town is out on a soccer field enjoying a game on a beautiful sunlit Italian day. Almost immediately Cash interacts with the leader of the local Italian militia, Captain Fausto Oppo (Sergio Fantoni), an affable sort who’s only too willing to surrender immediately, if only the town can continue to enjoy their game and, later, a preplanned night of revelry. This of course sets the straight and narrow Cash into near fits of apoplexy, but the cooler wisdom of Lieutenant Christian prevails, and a certain negotiated peace of sorts results.

It’s here, however, that Edwards pretty much just decides to go full tilt boogie into farce territory, or at least as full tilt boogie as William Peter Blatty’s sometimes over mannered screenplay will allow. Festivities do indeed occur, with the result being that (in typical farce fashion) various characters end up being mistaken for others, courtesy of a bacchanalian trading of uniforms. This results in supposed hilarity when other officers, like the confounded Major Pott (Harry Morgan), show up, since the non-English speaking Italians are clad in American uniforms and a lot of the Americans are dressed up as Italians, supposedly our “enemy.”

In a way What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? is oddly reminiscent of another somewhat overstuffed film set in a World War II era Italian village, one that is also genial more than downright hilarious, Stanley Kramer’s The Secret of Santa Vittoria. Both films do a good job depicting the kind of laissez faire (lascia fare?) attitude of the Italians, while also offering a certain low key lunacy with regard to the supposed Axis interaction between the Italians and the Germans. Unfortunately Blatty’s screenplay never completely cuts loose, kind of like Captain Cash, in fact (though of course one of the film’s central arcs is in fact the whole scale destruction of Cash’s sense of order). The film coasts by on the general affability of a game international cast, but it never really attains the giddy heights that the best farce—by Edwards or anyone else—tends to do.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. Elements are in generally satisfactory condition from a damage standpoint, though there are the typical signs of age related wear and tear, including minor blemishes, scratches and occasional minus density. There's noticeable fade here, though, albeit in various amounts throughout the presentation, and in fact the variable color space of this presentation is probably one of its more defining characteristics. At times things like flesh tones are anemic, ruddy or brown looking (see screenshot 1 for just one example), while at other times the palette is at least incrementally warmer and more natural looking. Grain is reasonably heavy at times, though resolves naturally throughout the presentation. There are no issues with image instability or compression issues.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? features a serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. Dialogue is very capably supported, and the film's sometimes goofy use of sound effects also is presented cleanly and clearly. The film features an enjoyable score by Edwards regular Henry Mancini, including "In the Arms of Love," which became a midlevel chart hit for crooner Andy Williams.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:53)

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? is genial more than hilarious, though it offers some winning performances by Shawn (in a somewhat unusual role for the actor) and Coburn, along with a gaggle of great supporting actors including Aldo Rey, Harry Morgan and Carroll O'Connor. William Peter Blatty would hit the bigtime a few years after What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? with his epochal novel The Exorcist. That outsized success in a supernaturally tinged horror genre might suggest that comedy, let alone farce, was not exactly Blatty's strong suit. Still, Edwards directs with his typical verve, extracting a decent amount of fun out of the improbable proceedings. Technical merits are generally good, if also occasionally problematic. Recommended.