Awful movie, Bogart was badly miscast

Rating: 1/10 (16 May 2009)

Humphrey Bogart, already seriously ill with esophageal cancer caused by a lifetime of chain smoking and chronic alcoholism, was far too old to play Captain Queeq, who was only supposed to have been an officer for seven years. Aside from the awful miscasting of the lead role - which should have gone to Richard Widmark - Tom Tully also gives an awful performance and it is a real mystery how either the talentless Bogart or Tully were nominated for Oscars. Robert Francis was very bland as the young ensign and the romance was completely irrelevant. The film is so slow, dated and boring. That homophobic racist Fred Macmurray plays his usual wooden, charmless self and Van Johnson looks even uglier than he did before. Everybody in the film is far too old. How this crapfest was nominated for seven Oscars is amazing, thankfully it didn't win any.
1/10 - the one and only good thing about the film is Jose Ferrer, although he doesn't appear until near the end.