Onionhead (1958)

Directed by Norman Taurog
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Pre-Mayberry Andy Griffith stars in this Coast Guard service comedy-drama. He gets assigned as an assistant cook aboard a small ship despite never having cooked in his life. He quickly learns and is popular with his shipmates, but not with the drunken head cook played wonderfully by Walter Matthau. Griffith is girl crazy, falling in love with the first girl he meets at the local watering hole on shore leave. Much of the film concerns the romantic complications of Griffith, the girl and Matthau. There is also some on-board ship drama involving an officer and a brief rescue mission. Griffith is more or less under control here, say compared to the wild man of A Face in the Crowd, but the story is strictly routine.