A Studio Summit Type of film

Rating: 9/10 (5 October 2005)

With the breakdown of the studio system in the Fifties, players no longer tied by contract to studios could command there own salaries. And the studios facing the competition of television paid them. It would have been almost impossible to make The Caine Mutiny a decade earlier. Three of the principal players Humphrey Bogart(Warner Brothers},Van Johnson,(MGM), and Fred MacMurray(Paramount)were all tied to other studios. But come the Fifties and Harry Cohn puts together a great cast for a great ensemble production at Columbia.
Humphrey Bogart got his third Academy Award nomination, but lost to Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. Brando had been nominated and lost for three straight previous years, he was not to be denied again. In fact Bogey when he won for The African Queen in 1951 upset a heavily favored Brando. Some kind of poetic justice there.
There's a scene when Bogart takes command of the USS Caine from Tom Tully who's run a pretty slack ship up to that point. He gives Bogart a peace of advice about taking an easy strain, that the Caine was a tired ship. He didn't realize that he was talking to a tired captain.
Maybe someone in the Navy should have realized that and given Bogart a much needed rest. But they didn't and thereby hangs a tale.
The crew and the officers of the Caine, used to the easy ways of Tully, get real resentful of Bogart. But they also notice some disturbing behavior patterns in Bogart. It's a fine line that Bogart in his performance has to walk. Other reviewers compare his performance in The Caine Mutiny to his work in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Both characters disintegrate mentally, but whereas Fred C. Dobbs has nothing to hold him back, Philip Francis Queeg is in a command situation with the lives of his crew and of his ship at stake. And Queeg is not an evil man.
Fred MacMurray by now had shown he could do a lot more than the light comedy leads Paramount usually put him in. As Ensign Keefer who plants the seeds of mutiny on the Caine, he's shown to be a really shallow character.
Just as shallow is young Ensign Willie Keith played by newcomer Robert Francis. He's the hotshot from Princeton who's newly assigned to the Caine. Up to the point of the mutiny, it's his eyes in which we see the action on the Caine unfold, first with Tully in command and then with Bogart. After that it's Jose Ferrer's viewpoint as the Defense Counsel at the Court Martial.
Most reviewers single out Bogart and MacMurray for the most praise in the cast. I think Van Johnson is sadly overlooked. He's got a very complex part. He's the decent executive officer who sees Bogart's disintegration, doesn't know what to do about it, and gets manipulated by MacMurray. The key scene for him in the film is to convince Navy lawyer Jose Ferrer he's worthy of defending. Johnson does very well in that scene, maybe his best performance on film.
Jose Ferrer doesn't get into the film until it's two thirds done and then he dominates. He's a bit of a manipulator himself at the court martial. He also provides the real final verdict of the affair of The Caine Mutiny.
Tom Tully for playing Captain DeVries also got an Oscar nomination in the Supporting Actor category, but he lost to Edmond O'Brien for The Barefoot Contessa. Tully's character is critical here, he provides the contrast between himself and Bogart as men and as commanders. He's also not mentioned enough in critiques of the Caine Mutiny.
Most of the time I like for films to be resolved. But the very strength of The Caine Mutiny as drama is that the issues are unresolved. Could certain actions by the members of the crew, by the Navy itself prevented the whole thing? Just how culpable were the men and officers of the Caine in a mutiny?
You may scratch your head at the conclusion, but you'll also be breathless by the depth of the performances in this fine ensemble film.