Bogart and MacMurray are superb

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2016)

First off, I just watched this in Blu Ray, and although not perfect, it is a very good transfer, and I think worth the upgrade.
This is, perhaps, the best performance Humphrey Bogart ever put in to a film, or if not, certainly one of his best. Captain Queeg was a complex character. It's too easy to look at him just as a coward or just as a paranoid. Queeg is a rather complex character with ever-changing moods, and Bogart was able to capture all the various subtleties, including the scene where he asks for the help of his officers, but then realizes he has failed. However. the penultimate scene is, of course, in the courtroom with the ball bearings; a truly classic movie scene, and in my view it should have won Bogart the Oscar.
However, somewhat overlooked is the very strong performance by Fred MacMurray. MacMurray is really underrated today, but throughout his career he demonstrated time and again that he could handle comedy and drama equally well. Here, he plays a bit of a coward who pushes the other officers to act, but then doesn't help them at all. The film wouldn't have worked half as well with MacMurray.
The other actor here I'll give credit to is an actor I never really liked -- Jose Ferrer. I always thought the most dominant characteristic of Ferrer was his own ego, rather than his acting. However, here he was quite good as the lawyer defending Van Johnson.
While I don't think Van Johnson was outstanding here, he was good, and the film is a good reminder that Johnson didn't only appear in fluff comedies and romantic films. He had a number of very good dramatic films, as well.
I can't quite make up my mind about Robert Francis. Of course, his early death prevented us from seeing how he might have matured in Hollywood, but I felt that he was not handsome enough to be a traditional leading man. He does alright here, and it is through his eyes that we see the story.
I always thought this was a hard film to criticize, but upon this most recent viewing I found a significant flaw -- the court-martial segment. Next time you watch the film, pay closer attention to it. With the exception of Bogart's part of it, the courtroom segment is remarkably superficial.
However, all things considered, this is a very good film, and I recommend it. It's one of the rare war/military films that I watch.