Don't Give Up the Ship is a 1959 American black-and-white U.S. Navy comedy film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Hal B. Wallis, directed by Norman Taurog, that stars Jerry Lewis and co-stars Dina Merrill, Diana Spencer, Claude Akins, Robert Middleton, Gale Gordon, and Mickey Shaughnessy. The film was shot from October 21, 1958 to January 30, 1959 and was released June 16, 1959. The film was based on the Alcoa Theatre episode Souvenir aired on Dec 2, 1957 starring Jack Lemmon that was written by Ellis Arnold Kadison. Kadison's idea was based on Edward Anhalt then serving with the Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California signing for a captured German Messerschmidt that was to be used as a prop in a training film. When the aircraft disappeared, Anhalt was issued with a bill from the US Government for $175,000 until a search revealed that the aircraft was discovered as a mockup on the MGM backlot.

Plot

Following World War II, an entire destroyer escort, the U.S.S. Kornblatt, has mysteriously gone missing. Lieutenant John Paul Steckler VII, the last of a long line of good-natured but screw-up U.S. Navy officers, was tasked with commanding the Kornblatt to its decommission back in the U.S., but somehow the ship disappeared without a trace on its homeward voyage. Now, with a $4 billion appropriation at stake, Congressman Mandeville refuses to approve the funds until the Kornblatt is found. Steckler's former superior, Vice Admiral Bludde, who has been trying to sugarcoat this embarrassing incident, has no other choice but to comply.