Operation Mad Ball (1957)

Director
Richard Quine

Main cast
Jack Lemmon; Ernie Kovacs; Mickey Rooney; Dick York; James Darren

Genres
Comedy, War

Description
In this wacky military spoof, Lemmon plays a terminally bored Army private waging a war of wits as he tries to throw a party under the nose of his obnoxious commanding officer.


Similar movies

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, MASH focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.
It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17. For the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem - there seems to be a security leak. The Germans always seem to be forewarned about escapes and in the most recent attempt the two men, Manfredi and Johnson, walked straight into a trap and were killed. For some in Barracks 4, especially the loud-mouthed Duke, the leaker is obvious: J.J. Sefton, a wheeler-dealer who doesn't hesitate to trade with the guards and who has acquired goods and privileges that no other prisoner seems to have. Sefton denies giving the Germans any information and makes it quite clear that he has no intention of ever trying to escape. He plans to ride out the war in what little comfort he can arrange, but it doesn't extend to spying for the Germans.
An unorthodox and irreverent DJ begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the US Armed Services Radio station in Vietnam.
A POW in World War II is put to work in a Munich zoo, looking after an Asian elephant. The zoo is bombed by the Americans and the director of the zoo decides it is not safe for his Asian elephant Lucy to remain there. So he sends Brooks to safety with Lucy. They escape and go on the run in order to get to Switzerland.
In WWII, a commando was sent in a secret mission in Sicily. They had a reluctant Italian prisoner of war to help them.
Military comedy about a World War II soldier (Glenn Ford) who thinks life will be easier if he assumes the identity of a deceased general.
Four 1950's cultural icons (Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Senator Joseph MacCarthy) who conceivably could have met and probably didn't, fictionally do in this modern fable of post-WWII America. Visually intriguing, the film has a fluid progression of flash-backs and flash-forwards centering on the fictional Einstein's current observations, childhood memories and apprehensions for the future.
Lloyd and Harry are two men whose stupidity is really indescribable. When Mary, a beautiful woman, loses an important suitcase with money before she leaves for Aspen, the two friends (who have found the suitcase) decide to return it to her. After some "adventures" they finally get to Aspen where, using the lost money they live it up and fight for Mary's heart.
Four couples meet for Sunday brunch only to discover they are stuck in a house together as the world may be about to end.
An 18-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and decides to have a slumber party. Meanwhile, a mass murderer with a propensity for power tools has escaped from prison, and eventually makes his way to the party where the guests begin dropping off one by one.
An aged father and his younger, mentally challenged son have been working hard every day to keep the bathhouse running for a motley group of regular customers. When his elder son, who left years ago to seek his fortune in the southern city of Shenzhen, abruptly returns one day, it once again puts under stress the long-broken father-son ties. Presented as a light-hearted comedy, Shower explores the value of family, friendship, and tradition.
Two men, a painter and a poor guy have to cross over Paris by night during world war II and nazi occupation to delivery black market meat. As they walk along dark parisian streets they encounter various characters and adventures until they are arrested by German police.
Timid milkman, Burleigh Sullivan (Lloyd), somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The fighter's manager decides to build up the milkman's reputation in a series of fixed fights and then have the champ beat him to regain his title.
The fictitious story of a real person called Lina Cavalieri who was known at the time as "the most beautiful woman in the world".
Professor Fergusson plans to make aviation history by making his way across Africa by balloon. He plans to claim uncharted territories in West Africa as proof of his inventions worth.
"The Sum of Us" is an Aussie story about a father and a son both searching for love and sharing an unconventional bond. Harry, the father, is the caring and open-minded "mate" that borders on annoyance. His son Jeff unsuccessfully searches for love, with the unwanted guidance of his father.
April's Shower begins with a group of people gathered for a wedding shower for April. At first, it seems to be a normal gathering for such an occasion but, as time goes on, secrets and stories begin to be revealed. Alex (Doolan) is a chef and a maid of honor at April's wedding. She ultimately reveals her true feelings which ends up taking an effect on everybody at the shower.
Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are two men that are both pretending to be someone they are not.
While on his travel across the Southwestern United States, with his Jeep CJ Renegade and his chestnut colt named Joe Brown, Luke meets Matt, son of a friend of his, Moose, who is in jail. Moose asks Luke to take care of Matt, and to help him to take possession of a piece of land. So starts their travel, full of adventures...
When milkman Jimmy Connelly accidentally puts Britain's contender for the World title out of action, he is propelled from amateur boxer to the world stage and announced as the replacement contender for the championship fight.
Spoof of 1960's Beach Party/Gidget surfing movies mixed with slasher horror films. A not-so-innocent girl in 1960's Malibu becomes the first girl surfer at Malibu Beach, only she suffers from dissociative identity disorder and occasionally her alter ego, a sexually aggressive, foul-speaking girl, comes out. During her "episodes" several beach goers are found murdered.
Reenactments of actual USO experiences of its female stars entertaining troops overseas.
Reverend Brooks leads the town in a contest to stop smoking for a month, But some tobacco executives don't want them to win, and try everything they can to make them smoke. If townspeople don't go nuts, from wanting a cigarette, or kill each other from irritation and frustration, they will will a huge prize.
A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman his only companion.
Wealthy Mary Haines is unaware her husband is having an affair with shopgirl Crystal Allen. Sylvia Fowler and Edith Potter discover this from a manicurist and arrange for Mary to hear the gossip. On the train taking her to a Reno divorce Mary meets the Countess and Miriam (in an affair with Fowler's husband). While they are at Lucy's dude ranch, Fowler arrives for her own divorce and the Countess meets fifth husband-to-be Buck. Back in New York, Mary's ex is now unhappily married to Crystal who is already in an affair with Buck.
Somebody has decided to celebrate New Year's Eve 2011 in a very twisted way - by dressing as a nun and brutally dismembering a little old lady. Lt. Arribas, a bald, toothless, one-eyed and lonely detective is called in on the case. His investigations lead him to the door of renegade Doctor Werner, who tells him the strange story of "The Beautiful Otero" the most beautiful woman in the world (former Spanish model Galera) who, before Werner s miraculous surgery, was the ugliest woman in the world! But Lt. Arribas now has a new problem - he is falling in love at a distance with his principle suspect who, because of her traumatic childhood, is planning her vengeance - to sabotage the Miss Spain Beauty Pageant, leaving behind her a trail of dead beauty queens. A super-slick science fiction thriller with a dark and bizarre finale.
Break Up (Italian: L'uomo dei cinque palloni and also known as The Man with the Balloons) is a 1965 Italian comedy film directed by Marco Ferreri.
"Sordid Lives" is about a family in a small Texas town preparing for the funeral of the mother. Among the characters are the grandson trying to find his identity in West Hollywood, the son who has spent the past twenty-three years dressed as Tammy Wynette, the sister and her best friend (who live in delightfully kitschy homes), and the two daughters (one strait-laced and one quite a bit looser).
Augie runs a small tobacco shop in Brooklyn, New York. The whole neighborhood comes to visit him to buy cigarettes and have some small talk. During the movie Lou Reed tries to explain why he has to have a cut on his health insurance bill if he keeps smoking and Madonna acts as a Singing Telegram.
New Zealand milk farmer Rob gives his lover Lucinda a ring. Trying to spark up her relationship with Rob, she takes her friend Drosophila's advice and starts to try and make Rob angry. But she tends to go too far. Admiring her ring while driving a lonely road, she has a run-in with an older woman that sets off a chain of events that begins with her quilt being stolen
After a lifetime of dreaming of traveling the world, 78-year-old homebody Carl flies away on an unbelievable adventure with Russell, an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer, unexpectedly in tow. Together, the unlikely pair embarks on a thrilling odyssey full of jungle beasts and rough terrain.
Fleeing 1930s New York and leaving behind a chequered past, the giltzy divorcee Mrs Stella Erlynne travels to Italy's sun-dappled Amalfi coast. Mrs Erlynne's appearance causes a stir amongst the visiting aristocracy. Based on the Oscar Wilde play Lady Windemere's Fan
Legendary comic Carlin comes back to the Beacon theater to angrily rant about airport security, germs, cigars, angels, children and parents, men, names, religion, god, advertising, Bill Jeff and minorities.
A group of friends get trapped at a baby shower when a mysterious outbreak starts turning people into homicidal maniacs.
Inspired by real-life events, this film explores the experiences of Capt. Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin) and other Japanese prisoners of war who were enlisted for the grueling task of building the Railroad of Death. As the men struggle to maintain their sanity and will, they begin to drift apart while Major Campbell (Robert Carlyle) plans his escape, Lt. Rigden (Kiefer Sutherland) watches his back, and Gordon attempts to keep his dignity.
Stories about three very different women and the men they attract. Adelina sells black-market cigarettes in Naples, is married to the unemployed Carmine, and faces a jail sentence. She can avoid it as long as she's pregnant. Several years and seven children later, Carmine is exhausted, so jail looks inescapable as does her contempt for Carmine. In Milan, Anna drives a Rolls, is bored, and picks up a writer. She talks dreamily of running off with him until he dents her car; that gets her emotional attention. Mara, a Roman call girl, turns the head of a naive seminarian, prompting a run-in with his granny and a vow of abstinence. Mara's fizzy lover from Bologna grows impatient.
This is a delightful if peculiar story of a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village called "Llareggub" (read it backwards). We meet a host of curious characters (and ghosts) through the 'eyes' of Blind Captain cat. This is a true "Classic" of modern British writing with a wonderful, mischievous use of language.
A beautiful woman (Mori) decides to transform into an ugly duckling in an attempt to ward off men and avoid more romantic disappointments.
The first of what Luis Buñuel later proclaimed a trilogy (along with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty) about “the search for truth,” The Milky Way (La voie lactee) daringly deconstructs contemporary and traditional views on Catholicism with ribald, rambunctious surreality. Two French beggars, present-day pilgrims en route to Spain’s holy city of Santiago de Compostela, serve as Buñuel’s narrators for an anticlerical history of heresy, told with absurdity and filled with images that rank among Buñuel’s most memorable (stigmatic children, crucified nuns) and hilarious (Jesus considering a good shave). A diabolically entertaining look at the mysteries of fanaticism, The Milky Way remains a hotly debated work from cinema’s greatest skeptic.
A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade. But the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking. There is another armed group that chases the 'wonder'. An argument whose property the balloon is breaks out between the two groups. It turns out that the balloon flew from Romania over the Danube River. In the turmoil following the argument, the balloon is destroyed. The police arrive and punish the villagers for meddling in other people's affairs.
Rufus T. Firefly is named president/dictator of bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighboring Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.
Shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister. The newspapers get hold of the story and photographers even catch Burleigh knock out Speed again. Speed's crooked manager decides to turn Burleigh into a fighter. Burleigh doesn't realize that all of his opponents have been asked to take a dive. Thinking he really is a great fighter, Burleigh develops a swelled head which puts a crimp in his relationship with pretty nightclub singer Polly Pringle. He may finally get his comeuppance when he challenges Speed for the title.
George Washington McLintock, 'GW' to friends and foes alike, is a cattle baron and the richest man in the territory. He anxiously awaits the return of his daughter Becky who has been away at school for the last two years. He's also surprised to see that his wife Katherine has also returned. She had left him some years before without really explaining what he done but she does make the point of saying that she's returned to take their daughter back to the State Capitol with her. GW is highly respected by everyone around him including the farmers who are pouring into the territories with free grants of land and the Indians who are under threat of being relocated to another reservation. Between his wife, his headstrong daughter, the crooked land agent and the thieving government Indian agent, GW tries to keep the peace and do what is best for everyone.
When Emanuelle (Gemser) arrives in the small Italian village heads start turning and eyes start popping. All males in the town are falling all over themselves trying to get a look (or a feel) of the new doctor. One in particular is the fiancee of the mayor's daughter. A kind of "Hatfield's and McCoy's" feud with a political twist has been going on and the young lovers' families are, unfortunately, on opposite sides. Emanuelle's shower becomes the target of a gang of voyeurs, including the pillars of the community. She uses it as a stage to taunt the watchers to charge into her apartment on the notion that she is showering with the mayor's daughter's fiancee. Instead of what they expected, they find the two young lovers in bed. Can Emanuelle shame them into allowing the marriage that they had been preventing?
Will Ferrell stars as The Man in the Yellow Hat, a gentleman who looks after his pet monkey - an inquisitive and wonderful creature whose enthusiasm often gets the best of him.
Ten-year-old orphan Patrick Dennis has come to live with his nearest relative and in the high times ahead, he's not going to believe his luck. Nor will you, because Patrick's relation is played by one of Hollywood's grandest dames. Reprising her Broadway triumph, Rosalind Russell won her fourth Oscar nomination and third Golden Globe Award as the marvelous madcap who lives life to the hilt. Auntie Mame brings to bubbly life the mayhem Mame and her cronies create while guiding Patrick's fortunes. "Life is a banquet," Mame says, "and most poor suckers are starving to death!" With wit, style and a seasoned cast to dish humor and heart with gusto, Auntie Mame is a full-course meal of entertainment magic.
A scientific experiment unknowingly brings extraterrestrial life forms to the Earth through a laser beam. First is the cigar smoking drake Howard from the duck's planet. A few kids try to keep him from the greedy scientists and help him back to his planet. But then a much less friendly being arrives through the beam...
George's partner in vaudeville quits their act, claiming that Betty has broken his heart. George then teams up with Charlie, a stranded trouper, and Irving becomes their manager. Later, in New York, the "Two Black Crows" star in their own revue and save money to build their own theater on Broadway. Betty comes to the theater with her lover, who poses as a cousin and induces George to hire her. He showers her with jewels and money. She tries to persuade George to invest in oil stock her lover is selling, and though their act is a success, Charlie fires Betty. When Charlie and Betty's lover quarrel, Charlie is injured.
After she spends all her money, an evil enchantress queen (Julia Roberts) schemes to marry a handsome, wealthy prince (Arnie Hammer). There's just one problem - he's in love with a beautiful princess, Snow White (Lily Collins). Now, joined by seven rebellious dwarves, Snow White launches an epic battle of good vs. evil...
The director Lauri Nurkse tells that Veijarit is a film about "arjensietokyvyttömyys" (= inability to tolerate everyday life) and about the Peter Pan complex. The main actor Mikko Leppilampi says it's about "kolkyttoistavuotiaat" (= thirtyeenagers = people of thirty behaving like teenagers). An immediate reference point is the commedia all'italiana of the 1950s and the 1960s, the black comedy often exposing the infantile stage of development of the Italian male. Saku and Ässä are anti-heroes, but we never fail to sense the humanity behind their shallow and crazy ways. Veijarit is a satire and a parody of a superficial way of life, but there is a vitality in the protagonists that we feel can lead them to a more meaningful stage of existence after the prolonged youth full of sound and fury. There is a motif of transcendence in the imagery of flying: will the balloons carry me or will they burst.
Luisa Ginglebusher (Sullavan) leaves the orphanage where she grew up to take a job as a movie theater usherette. Out in the world for the first time, Luisa is unsure of what to do about the attentions of men, so she ends up telling lies that get her tangled up in a sticky situation.
When a chance encounter brings together the cynical Dell and the quick-witted Kimberly, the stage is set for a tempestuous love affair that unfolds like a puzzle. As the film zigzags back and forth in time-from a meteor shower in LA, to an encounter in a Paris hotel room, to a fateful phone call-an unforgettable portrait of a relationship emerges.
Four directors tell tales of Eros fit for a 1970s Decameron. Working-class lovers, Renzo and Luciana, marry but must hide it from her employer; plus, they need a room of their own. A billboard of Anita Ekberg provocatively selling milk gives a prudish crusader for public decency more than he can handle. The wife of a count whose escapades with call girls make the front page of the papers decides to work to prove her independence, but what is she qualified to do? A buxom carnival-booth manager who owes back taxes offers herself for one night in a lottery: a nerdy sacristan and a jealous cowboy make for a lovers' triangle. In each, women take charge, but not always happily
Based on a true story, the tale of a cement truck driver named Danny, whose long awaited vacation is cancelled thanks to his scheming girlfriend, Trudy. Danny escapes his grim life in suburban Australia and blasts into the skies in a chair tied with helium balloons. A mighty thunderstorm blows him clean off the map, and spits him out far away over the lush green town of Clarence. In this new town, he rockets into the world of Glenda, the town's only parking cop. While the media back home becomes obsessed with the story of his disappearance, Danny gets to reinvent himself in this new town, and in his great adventure, he discovers a true soul mate in Glenda. Fate catches up with him eventually, as Danny's true identity is revealed and Trudy--now a tabloid celebrity--comes to the idyllic town to claim Danny and drag him back to Sydney. Danny, however, is a changed man; he's discovered what it means to be happy and has found a new self-worth.
On his deathbed Carmine Vespucci's father tells him to "get Proclo". With "the hit" on, Gaetano tells a cab driver to take him where Carmine can't find him. He arrives at the Ritz, a gay bathhouse where he is pursued amorously by "chubby chaser" Paul B. Price and by entertainer Googie Gomez who believes him to be a broadway producer. His guides through the Ritz are gatekeeper Abe, habitue Chris, and bellhop/go-go-boys Tiger and Duff. Squeaky-voiced detective Michael Brick and his employer Carmine do locate Gateano at the Ritz, as does his wife Vivian. Written by Ed Stephan
Two 'resting' actors living in a squalid Camden Flat - and living off a diet of booze and pills - take a trip to a country house (belonging to Withnail’s uncle) to 'rejuvenate'. Faced with bad weather, altercations with the locals, and the unexpected arrival (and advances) of Uncle Monty, the pairs wits and friendship are tested... Set in 1969, the year in which the hippy dreams of so many young Englishmen went sour, 1986's Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I is an enduring British cult. Withnail is played by the emaciated but defiantly effete Richard E Grant, "I" (i.e., Marwood) by Paul McGann. Out-of-work actors living in desperate penury in a rancid London flat, their lives are a continual struggle to keep warm, alive and in Marwood's case sane, until the pubs open. A sojourn in the country cottage of Withnail's Uncle Monty only redoubles their privations.
Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.
Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.
Jackie-O is anxiously awaiting the visit of her brother home for Thanksgiving, but isn't expecting him to bring a friend. She's even more shocked to learn that this friend is his fiance. It soon becomes clear that Jackie Kennedy's obsession is nothing compared to her obsession with her brother, as it also becomes clear she isn't the only member of the family with problems..

© Valossa 2015–2024