I thought it was out of place and a big waste of screen time.
I don't know why it was in the movie.
They thought the pill box was wired by the Nazis in order to spy on their communications. So the Americans took turns making up calls to fool the Nazis.
shareThe reason for the call is obvious ... yet the point remains and I agree. The scene was funny yet did nothing to advance the story. I laughed and thought why is this in here.
shareNewhart basically did the routine that catapulted him to stardom as a comic. He wrote his lines and of course they were very humorous. Siegel did not want the sequence in the film, the studio had Newhart in the film in order for him to do his thing and as usually happens, money trumped art.
shareagreed
shareThere’s an interview with Newhart on YouTube about his role in the movie and he acquiesces about the bit with the pillbox microphone coming from his standup act where he does one end of a humorous phone conversation. He also said that by the time of the movie, his standup career had taken off and was making way more than he was getting in the movie. So, he kept asking the director to kill off his character so he could return to standup and as the movie went on, he started suggesting more and more bizarre ways his character could be killed during combat
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