Whole better than sum of many weak "parts"

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2006)

Sometimes you can like a movie "in spite" of various performances and characters, rather "because" of them. Humphrey Bogart is sensational, as usual, as the paranoiac Queeg. However... Maryk (Van Johnson) is dense beyond belief, and so much so that only such a person would fall for the weak machinations of Keefer (Fred MacMurray), a short-timer whose performance as an inept officer was matched by MacMurray's one-dimensional portrayal, despite his depiction as some sort of genius novelist in civilian life.
And... can you say insipid, colorless, and annoying?? -- both Wynn and Francis conform to all of these, both in terms of their characters and performances, and their romance, which was thoroughly uninteresting, unnecessary, and even detracted from the film's main story. Queeg may have been crazy, but NOT in his depiction of Francis as inept officer. Ferrer's performance as the lawyer can be termed as "whelming." One presumes his injured arm was real, and simply written in in the flick. However, Jose must have been in some danger of further injury, if the scenery had collapsed while he was chewing on it.
Finally, there is no way - based upon his seniority, performance (as an officer) and experience to that point - that the Caine's predecessor captain (Tom Tully), now in command of a large combatant vessel (to which Francis' Willie character is assigned at the end) would direct this junior officer to "take her out" when the ship was leaving the dock. For one thing, professional pilots, specialized in guiding ships at the particular port involved, and often performed this task. If one of the ship's company did so, it would only have been either the captain, executive officer, or another of the more senior officers. Were the captain in actuality to allow Willie to perform this task, Queeg's court martial would not be the only one. But as someone who performed a 3-year period as a naval officer, many, many years after the Caine's tenure - I still enjoyed - in addition to Bogart - the overall setting. I loved Bogart's performance and the shipboard settings, the portions at-sea, etc., so much, I still would rate it at the maximum.