A great film that bails out at the end

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2000)

"The Caine Mutiny" is a great Film, make no mistake about it. Bogart is brilliant(he was nominated for an oscar), Van Johnson makes Steve Maryk's actions totally believable and justifiable, and Fred MacMurray's Tom Keefer proves how versatile and underrated an actor he was. Jose Ferrer shines as Greenwald.
There is one element missing from the film and that is the underlying theme of anti-semitism. Having viewed a television presentation of "the Caine Mutiny Court Martial" from the 1950s(with Lloyd Nolan as brilliant as Bogart was as Captain Queeg), the anti-semitism was placed right out on the table with Judge Advocate Challee stating that Greenwald was a pretty good Lawyer "for a Jew".
In the film version Greenwald's confrontation with Keefer is an interpreted as an act of Greenwald's conscience getting to him. In the Play, Greenwald(played wonderfully by Barry Sullivan) reveals his true feelings. He tells us "Adolph Hitler goal was to conquer the world and rid it of Jewish 'Vermin' and melt them down to soap. And while Hitler was marching through Europe, who was on the home front protecting Mrs Greenwald from this maniac. Was it her son Barney? Not yet, he was learning to fly and it would take a long time, Was it Willie Kieth? Still on the playing fields of Harvard. Maybe it was Old Yellowstain, and others like him who didn't crack under pressure".
Greenwald concludes with "I found the only way to clear Steve Maryk was to torpedo Queeg and I am sick about it. I owed him better. He kept Adolph Hitler form washing his hands with my mother"
This film was made with the co-operation of the US Navy. They rejected several versions of the story until Stanley Roberts came up with an acceptable one(and got an oscar nomination for it). the addition of these elements into Greenwald's speech along with the depiction of navy personnel may have been too much of a cross to bear for the US Navy.
Although anti-semitism and other racial biases had been the subject of previous films, it was avoided here.
"The Caine Mutiny" is a great film that still holds up today. It might have been even better.