Operation Mad Ball
Today’s commentator, the late, great Michael Schlesinger, loved screwball comedies like 1957’s Operation Mad Ball, a splendid military farce from director Richard Quine and writer Blake Edwards (on the cusp of his own directorial career). Jack Lemmon and Mickey Rooney play fast and loose as slightly larcenous enlisted men determined to celebrate their imminent release from the army right under the nose of their uptight captain played by Ernie Kovacs. Kathryn Grant is the object of Lemmon’s (and Kovacs’s) affections.
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About Michael Schlesinger
Michael Schlesinger was widely acknowledged as the dean of classic film distributors, having worked for more than 25 years at MGM, Paramount and Sony, keeping hundreds of vintage movies in theatrical release (and later DVD), and instigating the restoration of many more, including the completion of Orson Welles' 1942 documentary It's All True some 50 years later. Behind the camera, he wrote and produced the American version of Godzilla 2000, co-produced such Larry Blamire parodies as The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and Dark and Stormy Night, and has written, produced and directed several short films featuring the faux-1930s comedy team of Biffle and Shooster. No power on Earth would have ever convinced him that It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World was not the Greatest. Movie. Ever. Sadly, Michael passed away on the morning of January 9, 2025.