No Time for Sergeants Reviews

Mac Hyman's hilarious novel, which then became a TV special, which then became a Broadway smash (script by Ira Levin), now comes to the screen with all of the fun intact. Andy Griffith played the role on TV and the stage and gets his chance to show how humorous he is in this, his second film, after a sensational debut in A FACE IN THE CROWD. He's a Georgia backwoods boy who is inducted into the peacetime Air Force when his country sends him "Greetings." His sergeant is McCormick (also repeating his Broadway role), a man who thinks that being in the service is a fine way to spend one's life, as long as nobody creates a ruckus. But that's exactly what Griffith does, as his warm naivete and questioning ways throw a monkey wrench into the sedate peacetime service. It's an episodic farce with one bright scene after another and some terrific acting by everyone. Griffith is sent to psychiatrist Millhollin and totally confounds the doctor. After he and Adams fall out of a plane and are posted as "missing, presumed dead," they turn up at their own funeral in a scene reminiscent of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. The film is clearly the inspiration for TV's much cruder "Gomer Pyle." Note Don Knotts and veteran Benny Baker in small roles, as well as a man who went on to star in TV's M*A*S*H after he changed his name from Jameel Farah to Jamie Farr.