Horizontal Lieutenant, The

Again and again, a Japanese raider strikes on an American-held Pacific island. He steals fruitcake from the military larder. Smoked oysters. Even gelfite fish. This means war! Lt. Merle Wye, who majored in French but was assigned to the intelligence group's Japanese interpretation unit, is given the daunting task of finding and stopping the marauding rascal. Meanwhile, Wye hopes he can make his efforts look heroic enough to impress a willowy army nurse. Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss put the antic in romantic in this giddy service comedy that was their fourth film together. In the cast: Charles McGraw, Jim Backus, Miyoshi Umeki and Hermione, the typing chicken whose intelligence is second to none.

• comedy