First Movie

I'm not positive this was the first movie I saw, but the day I saw it was unforgettable.

It was my 8th birthday and in the evening we planned to see The Incredible Mr. Limpit, starring Don Knotts. The movie was funny, but the unforgettable part happened during the day. I was out walking in the yard and stepped on some house insulation on the ground. I heard a buzzing/humming sound. Thinking it was some flies, I started stomping around on it. Why I did that I don't know. Whoa! There were bees inside and one stung me on the top of my foot. When we went to the movie, I wore my pretty black patten leather shoes with a strap across the top. When I got home that evening my foot was all swollen up except where the strap had been.

Now back to the movie -- The story begins before the U.S. becomes involved in World War II, before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shy bookkeeper Henry Limpet loves fish with a passion. Rejected by the U.S. Navy and feeling downcast, he falls off a pier into the waters near Coney Island and finds he has turned into a fish. Since he never resurfaces, his wife and friends assume he has drowned.

The animated fish Limpet, complete with his signature spectacles, discovers a new-found ability during some of his initial misadventures, his "whale-busting" thrum. He falls in love with a female fish named Ladyfish, and rejects his overbearing human wife, Bessie, in the process.

Still determined to help the Navy, Limpet finds the ship on which one of his friends, George Stickel, is stationed. With George's help, Limpet gets himself commissioned by the U.S. Navy, complete with advancing rank and a salary, which he sends to Bessie. He finds Nazi U-boats and plays a large part in the Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.

I still vividly remember loving another Don Knotts movie ~~ The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. He is just so hilarious. Of course it goes without saying then that the Andy Griffith show was one of my favorites.