UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Hitchcoc There isn't much to say about this. When Jim Nabors played Gomer Pyle in the Marine Corps, every plot was the same. He did something to upset the Sergeant. Here it is one thing after another with hayseed Andy Griffith causing great pain to another sergeant. No matter how bad it gets, he always lands on his feet. As a matter of fact he actually innovates, making things run smoother. He, of course, has no knowledge of how the military is supposed to work, so it's often just an accident. Griffith is really pretty funny and carries the whole show on his back. His long suffering sergeant does a pretty good slow burn as things fall apart.

dougdoepke The movie's a generally hilarious parody of a country bumpkin's life in the Air Force. Griffith is tailor made for the hillbilly Stockdale who seems to take every adversity in alligator-grinning stride. Ditto, McCormick as sour-faced Sergeant King who just can't seem to escape the plague of his hillbilly underling. Then too, those saluting toilet seats may be the first on-screen view of a commode, even military style. As I recall, the gimmick brought tremendous guffaws from surprised audiences back in '58.Now the movie's humor comes from Stockdale's inability to adapt to military ways. Instead, he insists on a kind of good-humored simplicity that's infectious. A lot of reviewers claim his inability is because he's dumber than a dirt pile. However, that's not my interpretation. I take him to be as smart as anyone else. Rather the problem lies in the distance between sophisticated military rules and country boy Stockdale's unsophisticated background. It's not that he's too dumb to adapt. Instead, he's used to personal relationships and not the impersonality of military rules and hierarchy. Thus he tries to reduce every rule application to a personal encounter—he thinks the sergeant is his friend, while he gets familiar with officers regardless of rank. It's not that he's stupid, he just comes from a less rigid, rule-bound environment.Anyhow, it's hard to say enough for Griffith's utterly winning performance. In my book, it's Oscar worthy, as if Hollywood ever rewarded such goofy comedic roles. However, I do think the movie is flawed. The airplane sequence followed by an A-bomb blast and then the bleak wind- up in the woods is not only not very funny, but undercuts the prevailing style and mood. I don't know about the original play, but this last part strikes me as sheer Hollywood. In short, it's a misguided studio effort at lengthening the film and working in some action and suspense. Nonetheless, I think this last part hurts more than it helps.All in all and despite the flaw, the movie ranks among the funniest of the many service comedies of the post-war period. That is, until the fracas in Vietnam brought this peace-time view of military life to a jarring close.

bkoganbing For those of you who know Andy Griffith best as the country wise sheriff of Mayberry or as the slick country lawyer Ben Matlock it might come as a surprise that Griffith got his first big career break playing that most ingenuous of military draftees Will Stockdale in No Time For Sergeants first on Broadway and then in this film version. Griffith is such a hick he makes Gomer Pyle look as sophisticated as Noel Coward.Stockdale is one of those people who glides through life while chaos erupts all around him. Because his father William Fawcett had kept his draft letters from him, when the Air Force finally does come to get him. The man whom the chaos effects the most is his sergeant at the classification center played by Myron McCormick in the best world weary tradition he can muster.Stockdale's best friend is Nick Adams, a kid from a military tradition family who wants the Army Infantry and not the Air Force and bemoans his fate through most of the film. He convinces Griffith of the fact that the infantry does the real fighting and everyone else just helps out occasionally. Like many other things Griffith takes them to heart and repeats them verbatim always at the wrong time. It's the heart of the humor in No Time For Sergeants.No Time For Sergeants ran for 796 performances on Broadway during the 1955-57 season and Griffith, McCormick, Don Knotts, and James Milhollin all repeat their roles from Broadway. This not the Andy Griffith Show is the first time Knotts and Griffith work together. Knotts plays a corporal at the classification center administering the manual dexterity test and how Griffith solves it is Gordian Knot like. But his session with psychiatrist James Millhollin is the funniest thing in the film. No Time For Sergeants is one of the best military comedies ever done on stage and screen. Do not miss it if broadcast.

jbrutland The movie is based on a book of the same name. Both the movie and the book is set in Callville. The author, Mac Hyman, was born and died in Cordele, Georgia. It isn't hard to see that "Callville" is just a play on the name of the author's hometown of "Cordele." Hyman was studying at Duke University when he left to serve his country in World War II in the Army Air Corps. After the war, he completed his studies at Duke and returned to Cordele. That was when Hyman wrote the novel. It was adapted for television first and then for Broadway and then the movie. Andy Griffith played Will Stockdale in all 3 versions. It was Griffith's second movie after "A Face in the Crowd."