Queeg Agonistes

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2009)

Watching this film, I found it rather easy to imagine Humphrey Bogart not playing Captain Queeg, but instead playing Richard Nixon mulling over his enemies list in lieu of the most likely suspects to have pilfered the strawberries. Bogart's intensity here is brilliant as he caroms back and forth between discipline-oriented naval officer and frightened paranoiac. His meltdown in the witness chair is one of the more memorable court-room scenes in cinematic history. While Bogie is the main event here, Jose Ferrer turns in an outstanding performance as the defense attorney. Fred McMurray is also tremendous in the role of the real "Yellow Stain," Tonm Keefer. I find it fascinating that one of TV's most innocuous 60's sitcoms dads played morally deficient characters in his two best film roles (the second being the amoral Walter Neff in "Double Indemnity"). There is no mistaking, however, that this film belongs to Bogart.