(3 of 3)
The movie oils its large-scale, mechanized slapstick with some of the camaraderie of Broadway's Mister Roberts. It also wisely recruits a key enlisted man (Harvey Lembeck) from that show's original cast. Unfortunately, the script is not up to the job of sustaining the hilarity of its idea at feature length. The picture loses pressure when repeating its shenanigans, sighs windily in romantic interludes between Cooper and his WAVE wife (Jane Greer). But more frequently, when it gets up a full head of steam, U.S.S. Teakettle bubbles with fun.