Bogie's Brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2004)

A patchy but very watchable novel adaptation,with some fine performances(MacMurray,Johnson,Ferrer),but this is Humphrey Bogart's movie.His usual persona of an amiable,trench-coated tough guy with a heart of gold is totally jettisoned here,as the character of Queeg is a nervous,paranoid,jittery wreck who is clearly unsuitable to be a US Navy Captain.Despite this,Bogart still makes his character oddly pitiable and sympathetic.His crumpling under Jose Ferrer's questioning in the courtroom scene is a great piece of film acting.The film is unbalanced(as everybody notes)by the pointless romance between Willie Keith and May Wynn,but the last word should go to Bogie himself.An anedocte claims he was once asked how he managed to convey the paranoia of Captain Queeg so accruately."Simple.Everybody knows I'm nuts anyway!" was the alleged reply!