# Movie with stranded U.S. sailor in WW2 Pacific **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705 "2010-08-09T13:26:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/1 "2010-08-09T13:26:30Z")
I think it came out in the 1960s or early 1970s. May have been Disney. I seem to recall the star was either Dick Van Dyke or Fred MacMurray, although I couldn’t find the movie in either of their [IMDb.com](http://IMDb.com) listings. The stranded sailor becomes sort of like Robinson Crusoe, ingeniously arranging for food and shelter. There’s a scene in an abandoned Japanese submarine that he finds on the beach, I think. He has to dodge a Japanese patrol, maybe. In the end he gets rescued and wanders across the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier, sort of stunned to be back among friends. Sorry I only vaguely remember this film. Anyone know it? ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/2 "2010-08-09T13:43:25Z")
I think it’s called Lt Robinson Crusoe USN with Dick Van Dyke. He also finds an Astro Chimp. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/3 "2010-08-09T13:44:19Z")
Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN? [Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060640/) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/4 "2010-08-09T14:22:47Z")
The most useless post ever: Nope, never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/5 "2010-08-09T14:51:03Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I think it’s called Lt Robinson Crusoe USN with Dick Van Dyke. He also finds an Astro Chimp. Until I read the next post I thought you were pulling his leg. Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/6 "2010-08-09T14:52:25Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN? [Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (1966) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060640/) Looks like that’s it. I guess the old abandoned Japanese sub had me thinking it was actually set during WW2. Many thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/7 "2010-08-09T15:19:45Z")
Now that I think about it, I seem to remember seeing that when I was a youg lad at the movie theatre in dowtown Cuyahoga Falls. Wasn’t there some tomfoolery with a firehose lifting Dick up into the air? ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/8 "2010-08-09T21:48:40Z")
I actually read the novelization of this as a child. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/9 "2010-08-10T01:27:17Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > …Wasn’t there some tomfoolery with a firehose lifting Dick up into the air? Not that I remember. But I remember so very, very little about it. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/10 "2010-08-10T02:19:44Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > The most useless post ever: > Nope, never heard of it. You gonna be kau-kau for the sharks! I saw this movie when I was a kid. Loved it, because it had an F-8 in the beginning. (Dad was in the Navy, and I spent a lot of my childhood at NAS Miramar.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/11 "2010-08-10T02:20:44Z")
Isn’t there a Girl Friday who is quite violent and spends a good chunk of the movie trying to kill him? I also vaguely recall him trying to calculate his location and getting annoyed when he realizes his computed coordinates put him in Muncie, Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/12 "2010-08-11T01:51:49Z")
> [@Helena](#): > > I actually read the novelization of this as a child. How was it? Did you read it before or after seeing the movie? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/13 "2010-08-11T11:54:49Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > > [@Helena](#): > > > > I actually read the novelization of this as a child. > > How was it? Did you read it before or after seeing the movie? Didn’t it win the Pulizter that year? ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/14 "2010-08-12T07:17:15Z")
Yep - remember as a kid noting the presence of extremely hot chick playing Friday role. Don’t recall her in anything else. IMDB search shows she was Nancy Kwan. I remember something about shark repellent, too. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/15 "2010-08-12T08:12:46Z")
My first memory of Nancy Kwan is her selling cosmetic cream in an informercial during the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/16 "2010-08-12T12:37:49Z")
[Hell in the Pacific](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063056/)? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/17 "2010-08-12T12:54:41Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > [Hell in the Pacific](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063056/)? Definitely not. **In Winnipeg** got it. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/18 "2010-08-12T14:38:40Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Isn’t there a Girl Friday who is quite violent and spends a good chunk of the movie trying to kill him? That was in Frank Miller’s graphic-novel version in the '80s. Turned out that he’d been set adrift by a post-apocalyptic government of muscular mutants with sharp teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/19 "2010-08-13T02:46:48Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > …That was in Frank Miller’s graphic-novel version in the '80s. Turned out that he’d been set adrift by a post-apocalyptic government of muscular mutants with sharp teeth. Remember, we’re talking about a Dick Van Dyke movie. Try to narrow it down a little, OK? Sheesh. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705/20 "2010-08-13T18:45:25Z")
I thought for sure this was going to be [Father Goose](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058092/). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-with-stranded-u-s-sailor-in-ww2-pacific/549705.md?page=2)