One of my all time favorites.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Famous big-flop from the Bluhdorn era at Paramount, and it shares some aspects with that other big Paramount flop of the era, "Paint Your Wagon." Both are essentially square musicals that try to be hip. This one tries by messing with Julie Andrews' image: She's a World War 1 spy for the Germans, and she's looser than the Maria von Trapp standard she set: When Rock Hudson, as the flyer who's romancing her, suggests she might be a virgin, she slaps him. Blake Edwards, about to marry her, must have loved the thought of giving the world a new Julie Andrews, but he made some serious mistakes. I find her chemistry with Hudson, counter to some other commenters, just fine. But making her a Mata Hari-type spy leaves us unsure of whom to root for. There's never any mention of how many Allied plots she reported to the Germans, how many Allied deaths she might have caused. And to maintain a persuasive cover, she's always entertaining the Allied troops. But the character is not a heroine, and the ending--she devotes herself to entertaining and raising money for the Allies--is impossible. We wouldn't just forgive Mata Hari, we'd put her before a firing squad. Edwards lengthens the movie with some exciting aerial sequences, a pair of sub-Clousseau French detectives, and much footage of Rock and Julie kissing. It's shot beautifully, and some nice songs are scattered about, including "Whistling in the Dark," a typically lovely minor-key Mancini melody set to an uncharacteristically pointless Mercer lyric. It keeps the eye and ear occupied, but never engages the heart.

I found this at a DVD sale and I'd never heard of this movie before. The description on the DVD case sounded fun and pacey - what a fallacy! After a very arresting opening scene, the movie devolves into the most wet and infantile romance story with no rhyme or reason to its plot and more montage sequences than you can poke a stick at. Neither Andrews or Hudson have more than a dozen lines in the first hour and when they finally do get any dialogue of significance you're past the point where you care to hear it. Andrews' songs are all identical (with the exception of an inexplicable strip sequence towards the middle) and while she is, as usual, vocally flawless, she is completely disconnected to her material and her co-stars. Hudson has no capacity opposite her to appear the powerful leading man he had in past movies. A minor amount of comic relief is offered with some stock Blake Edwards material - two bumbling French inspectors and a drunken flight captain. Beyond that this movie is badly put together, horrendously developed, badly scored (the same endlessly sappy violin riff throughout) and poorly costumed with little attention to detail or to period. Andrews looks sterile throughout, firing up a few times for some fight scenes that fall flat for the simple reason that they, like every other plot point in this movie, are given little to no background. The aerial dog-fighting sequences are very grandly shot but have no stakes whatsoever rendering them a pointless distraction. Edwards later claimed the studio interfered a great deal with this movie in development - honestly I don't buy it. This plot was rotten to the core. Having seen the full 133 minute cut I can well understand why a lot of editing went on. ANYTHING to make this dog have some pace or punch!

This film is an unstructured ragbag which is not a musical, nor a romantic comedy, nor a spy thriller, nor a war movie, nor a spoof, nor a slapstick comedy, although it does try to be all of these, mostly sequentially but sometimes, Lord help us, simultaneously. Miss Andrews' acting abilities are untaxed by the weak script, and she spends much of the overlong time of the film singing songs which would not be out of place in "Mary Poppins." The aerial sequences are obviously expensive but unexciting. The film is a work which shrieks self-indulgence and lack of discipline, which, alas, is so often the case when the credits read "Produced, written, AND directed by . . ."

I am an avid Julie Andrews fan and I just watched this for the first time on DVD -- the Director's Cut version. I was very surprised that it was rated G. How did they get bedroom scenes, a seduction story line, two strip tease acts, and war/shooting/blood into a G rating? Weird. I would rate it PG-13.Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was a beautiful showcase of Andrew's voice and talent. The acting was great. The storyline was a little weak, leaving gaps that could have been filled with some good dialogue. There were too many "no talking, just walking" scenes for me... I would have liked to see the the relationship between Julie and Rock blossom, so that the intense love would be more believable.