Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Other reviews have highlighted many of the superb elements of writing, casting, direction, acting etc that made "Bilko" an outstanding comedy success that is as funny now as almost 60 years ago when it was first broadcast.One element is rarely mentioned, which has helped Bilko to have a timeless appeal... it appeals to all ages, and is completely lacking in "off colour" gags or any obscenities. Was this realistic? Of course not, in an almost all male Army camp in any country or at any time period. But the strict rules of US television in the 1950s meant that nothing in the slightest bit "doubtful" was permitted; everyone knew this, the writers and the actors, and so Bilko was 100% clean.What a contrast with so many "comedy" shows and performers of the 21st century... whose work is scattered with expletives etc that make them unsuitable for family viewing...and in some cases any viewing at all. We can all be grateful that 1950s US television had these strict rules.. which has permitted Bilko to entertain millions worldwide, and which will continue... hopefully for many decades to come.

If I had to pick a show that had more funny people on it I would be hard pressed to name any other show but the Phil Silvers Show. Not even the great Stanley Kramer comedy for the big screen It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World had a better laugh quotient to the cast than the Phil Silvers Show which ran for five years. Talk about characters this show created so many great characters all under the direction of creator Nat Hiken. One thing about the army it is a great leveler of class. Especially the peace time Cold War army of the Eisenhower years where a draft was in force and all kinds of people got in there. You could never create a show like this today.Phil Silvers on the big screen had a so so career. He was not really suited for it. He played small roles and in small doses he was fine. I wrote a review for the Jean Arthur/John Wayne comedy A Lady Takes A Chance where Silvers played a tour bus driver. His character like Sergeant Ernie Bilko here was 'on' all the time. That does not work in film, I would have killed Silvers before the bus trip was over or I would have had to stand in line to do it.But as Bilko in a half hour format, sergeant in charge of the motor pool at Camp Caldwell and consummate con man Silvers was perfectly within his element. And the regulars, the soldiers under his command and others at the camp were in support of him. Allan Melvin and Harvey Lembeck were his chief aides, both corporals. They're a pair of funny guys themselves. And who could forget Maurice Gosfield as the ultimate schnook Private Doberman, unmercifully conned week after week by the sergeant he was devoted to. Another guy who was conned was Joe E. Ross as Sergeant Ridzik of the mess hall. Food is always a valuable commodity in any con game.Presiding over this was the Fifties most famous slow burn Paul Ford as Colonel Hall, camp commandant. Before he was cast as the colonel, Ford was a good dramatic actor in such things as All The King's Men and Lust For Gold in serious parts. Nat Hiken saw something in Ford, a comic gift like Edgar Kennedy and even after the show ended Ford for the rest of his life was cast in parts to show off his fabulous slow burn technique.People like Dick Van Dyke guest starred here, even Bing Crosby did an episode, he toured with Silvers on USO tours during World War II. Even though Silvers in my opinion never quite reached the heights as he did in this TV series, he leaves a lasting comedy legacy with the Phil Silvers Show. Even though he was the unquestioned star all of his ensemble came in for their share of laughs. It was a great ensemble of classic comedians, rarely duplicated anywhere.

Phil Silvers featured in the show now universally known as 'Bilko', after the character he played, a wisecracking, gambling sergeant in the US Army. A long-running situation comedy from the early years of television, it still stands up as exceptionally funny today.Over 143 episodes, Sgt Ernest Bilko plotted, schemed, and stumbled over his lines (this was live television, after all). The pauses and the ad libs add to the genius of this series, viewed five decades later. It also made a star of Silvers, who up to this point had been a comedian, actor, and singer (he was Gene Kelly's pal in 'Cover Girl', for example) - although following Bilko, he never really found a suitable starring role again.In 1996, a misguided attempt to bring Bilko to the big screen, starring Steve Martin, failed, possibly because the character really could only be played by one man. Original episodes still air regularly over the world, and a collection of episodes (sadly only a fraction of the ones available) were released on DVD for the 50th anniversary of the show.

This show has been running almost non stop on British TV since the fifties, and so it should. Its one of the funniest shows to have come out of the USA and has probably influenced more British comedians than anything else. Made in the days when a real audience actually laughed in the right places, at a razor sharp cast who appeared to love what they were doing.