McHale's Navy (TV Series) The Return of Maggie (1965) User Reviews

This had all the makings of a fine show.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 15 November 2014]

Binghamton has just received a call from the Admiral about a con-artist named Maggie opening up another gambling joint in New Caledonia. It seems that she calls the place a 'tea room' as not to make waves with the authorities. Anyway the Admiral wants the place off-limits to all Navy sailors. He goes as far to tell Binghamton that if any sailor is in the establishment to throw the book at them.

Binghamton knows that McHale is friends with Maggie. So instead of telling them to stay away, he takes the entire crew to New Caledonia and lets them enter Maggie's place. Now he has the entire crew caught in an 'off-limits' place and sends for the Admiral. But with the help of Maggie, McHale may have a plan to get them out of trouble.

This was an enjoyable show that was well received. There was some clever writing and some nice acting that made the episode entertaining from beginning to the end. This was another script that did not have to rely on stupid antics by Parker to make the show interesting. This was actually a script that was well thought out with an interesting story. Good watch.

NOTE- Even though the title says 'Return of Maggie', there has never been a Maggie Monohan in the run of the series. However in season two show 'Orange Blossom for McHale', a character Kate O'Hara (Joyce Jameson), was very similar. The two dressed the same, same gambling type, same destination and even stole McHale's wallet at the end of the show. Guess the writers wanted a different name for the character.

Several plot holes, but rather funny anyhow

[FlushingCaps · 8/10 · 23 November 2020]

Binghamton hears from an Admiral Slocum that the Navy is troubled by a gambling saloon operating in New Caledonia, run by a woman named Maggie, who is known by Binghamton to be an acquaintance of McHale's. The admiral tells him to make this place, labeled a "Tea Parlor" off limits and if he finds any military personnel found inside afterwards he should throw the book at them.

So of course the captain now schemes to trap McHale & Co. inside "Maggie's Tea Room," by telling them he wants them to escort him to New Caledonia for a meeting, and that he has decided to grant them the leave he had earlier turned down.

McHale is quite suspicious, but everyone else is excited about the chance for leave. They leave almost immediately and arrive in New Caledonia, with Binghamton and Carpenter supposedly off for their meeting while McHale's crew off for their leave.

Before they go anywhere, here comes Maggie who knew they were coming because of a telegram she thinks Quint sent her. McHale sees the telegram, tells her he had nothing to do with it, but he goes along and lets his men, including Parker and he, go into the tearoom-seeing immediately that it serves a lot more than tea.

Parker, in fact, order a cup of tea and drinks it, unaware it is booze. He tells Maggie, "You left the tea bag in too long." Chuck winds up drunk without realizing it. Meanwhile the men are into some of the gambling tables. McHale went along because Maggie assured him her place had not had the US Navy post any off limit signs, so there should be nothing wrong with them being there.

Momentarily, McHale in conversing with Maggie becomes convinced that Binghamton sent the telegram and is planning a trap. He tells her that the paddy wagon is backing up to this joint right now, but proceeds to take about 2 more minutes explaining to her why he and his men need to leave right away. He rushes downstairs to tell the guys but before they can exit Binghamton and his SPs raid the joint, putting McHale and men in custody, temporarily just being guarded over on the side of the room.

The captain wants to gather his evidence before he leaves. McHale gets the idea that he can get Maggie to turn Binghamton into a big gambling winner, thinking he will call off the admiral he has sent for. They get him to accidentally place a bet at the roulette wheel while Maggie is operating it, and somehow able to get the winning number be whatever the captain has chosen, and after a couple of wins where Binghamton wasn't aware the money he has was being considered to have bet, he now is excited about winning and intentionally places several bets, with Maggie rigging it for him to win over and over.

Binghamton develops his gambling fever amazingly quickly, and suddenly doesn't care about the admiral coming or anything. Just as he is said to have broken Maggie's bank, the admiral shows up and he is blaming Binghamton instead of anyone else.

The tag scene at the end reveals that Binghamton's only punishment was being put at the bottom of the promotion list, while Maggie has indeed lost her "tea room" as she is being sent back to Australia, while McHale and his men suffer no punishment.

There are plot holes here. How did Binghamton think he could really get away with arresting and trying McHale and his crew when the "tea room" was not posted as off limits until after they were arrested, when Elroy tacked up a sign in the middle of the room. How did Maggie truly arrange for the roulette wheel to come up on whatever number Binghamton bet on? Rigged roulette wheels are not that crooked, they just have things rigged so certain numbers come up more often, or less often than a fair wheel would. Why did the admiral, who told Binghamton to "throw the book" at any servicemen caught in the place, yet when he catches the captain, the only punishment is to be put at the bottom of the promotion list?

The biggest complaint I had was that after McHale, when talking with Maggie, figured out it was a trap, instead of him saying, "Honey, I have to get my men out of here right away before the captain raids the place," and rushing out right away to do so, he stands there explaining it all to her, telling her what a bum Binghamton is, etc. As scripted, he almost certainly could have gotten his men out of the place before raid began if not for his foolish desire to tell her all the details before leaving.

Despite these and other holes, this episode was rather humorous overall. As far as McHale doing his usual complicated plot to avert trouble, he did almost nothing, given that he wasn't in trouble until halfway through, then held in one room the rest of the episode under guard, all he really did was talk to the captain while Maggie cheated to have Binghamton keep winning. The rest of the men had little to do the whole time, and Chuck goofed up nothing with any clumsiness at all, save for one funny bit near the beginning when he placed a hot iron in the captain's hand. It gets an 8 from me.