Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A frisky troop of American soldiers take over a Sicilian town and turn it upside down, even with the yearly festival going on, and create a separate war all of its own. Fooling both a naive major and a trusting general, the confusion and chaos just increases, leading to the most absurd if international incidents.Image Hope and Crosby in "The Road to the Front Line", and that's what you've got in this sometimes juvenile anti-war farce that reeks of the zany mind of its director, Blake Edwards, often utilizing sight gags straight out of the "Pink Panther" series. Repetitive gags of soldiers falling into various locations of water dominate this, with leading players James Coburn and Dick Shawn screaming throughout. Future Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and future Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan) are the befuddled officers, Morgan coincidentally named Potts. Future "Hogan's Heroes" general Leon Askin is the head Nazi invading Sicily here, forecasting his future T.V. role. This basically is a big screen "Hogan's Heroes" with a different setting and slightly more adult humor. Still, it's rather pedestrian, although Morgan is very funny. Too bad he never went down Lloyd Bridges territory by appearing in the vast number of "Airplane!" style spoofs later in his career.

"What did you do in the war daddy?" is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It rates up there with "It's a Mad Mad Mad World", and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming", etc. Definitely a laugh out loud movie. I saw it first in Seattle in the 60's with a friend, and it was playing with "..The Russians are coming." Both movies were so hilarious that we stayed and watched them both twice. I was shocked here to read the negative reviews. Perhaps what caused their dislike is why the movie was not as popular as it should have been. I do remember when the Germans arrived, the whole tone of the movie changed. It was a gay hilarious party, and suddenly the war returns. You don't want the fun to end, so you're kind of angry that the writers did this to you. But, if you can tell yourself this IS a 'comedy about war' and accept the change, you will see that the hilarity continues. You will enjoy the end just as much as the beginning. I bought the VHS version years ago when it came out and have to agree to the timelessness of it, it was still hilarious. It needs to come out on DVD!!!

this movie was not only well written it has all the right stars. dick Shawn is hilarious and black Edwards always puts out A comedy! and the biggest plus of all was that i was there when they made the movie shot partly in thousand oaks California.if this movie was made today it would still garnish rave revue's.James coburn is one of my all time favorite actors,and of coarse harry Morgan we all know today from M.A.S.H. he adds to the strength of the comedy as Bud Abbott once did with Costello.of all the movie remakes i think this one would and should be considered by the studio executers.With a budget of todays standard it would not be a problem of set and location but that of actor costs and consideration.

The Sixties produced a slew of funny war comedies demonstrating that WWII was basically good fun for all concerned, rather than being peopled with the kind of angst-filled, hand-wringing adolescents you see nowadays in movies like Memphis Belle and Saving Private Ryan. Edwards would go on to fantastic success with the Pink Panther series and writer Blatty is notable for his later work, The Exorcist. Edwards draws on a solid cast, including veterans Carroll O'Connor, Harry Morgan and Aldo Ray, without whom no war movie is complete. Italian star Fantoni turns in a meatball performance as Oppo but Dick Shawn steals the show with the best role of his career. Although a little slow in spots, Blake Edwards nonetheless gets where he's going and the result is a fine, though underrated, entry in the genre. The interactions between Shawn and Fantoni are worth the price of admission alone.