Jose Ferrer's arm.

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2002)

At the beginning of the trial,the lawyer,played by José Ferrer arrives with a wounded arm:no connection with the story,no affect on the end of the movie, completely gratuitous.So why? In "the sniper" (1952),there's also a mutilated arm.Some historians of the cinema think it must be Dmytryk's remorse,because he became an informer during the McCarthysm.Some kind of self-punishment.Who knows?Strange indeed.
For the movie itself,its only flaws are the bland scenes between the Princeton lad and his squeeze.But everything else is absorbing,and Humphrey Bogart gives one of his best interpretations,acting with his hands (and his famous marbles that were to become almost legendary) as much as with his tormented face.Actually,he almost never stops twitching. Bogart gets good support from Fred MCMurray in a very ambiguous part -did he "help" Bogart's paranoia?Ferrer would be inclined in favor of this hypothesis-,and Van Johnson.
In spite of a conventional last scene,"the Caine mutiny " leaves a bitter taste in the mouth:where does madness begin?Who is responsible of Bogart's neurosis?Who are the good guys? Is the villain the one we thought?The last scene between Ferrer and the mutineers bring everything into question.Ambiguity will come back to the fore (particularly in Brando's character)in Dmytryk's subsequent "the young lions" (1958).