No Time for Sergeants (1958)

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Starring Andy Griffith, Nick Adams, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, Howard Smith, Sydney Smith, James Millhollin, Will Hutchins, Dub Taylor.

A slack-jawed rube (Griffith) from some backwoods corner of Georgia is drafted into the Air Force where he proceeds to aggravate his barracks sergeant (McCormick) to no end. Overlong and sometimes tedious service comedy tries to coast on Griffith’s well-meaning idiocy—he plays it well, but it still wears out its welcome—leaving the pic’s value to episodic highlights. McCormick is in good, exasperated form, his patience tested again and again by the worst kind of foe (the clueless kind). The best bit by far comes when a psychiatrist (Millhollin) tries digging deep into the hollow wellspring of the hayseed’s psyche. Adapted from an Ira Levin stage play, which was based off a best-selling novel from Mac Hyman. Don Knotts makes his film debut in a small role as an NCO testing out Griffith’s motor skills (he played the same part in the stage version alongside his lifelong friend). Later a television series.

62/100