Great moments, but severely flawed movie

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2003)

I went into this movie a tad iffy on Humphrey Bogart. I liked him, but I just didn't see the total appeal. Needless to say, I gained a lot of respect for him after watching this, and he's easily the best (only good?) part of this movie. His performance is a great aside to his usual steadfast tough guy role. The scenes involving his decent into exhaustion/mental breakdown are done well, and not without a hint of humor (wacky strawberry misadventures, ext).
However, that's about where the positive aspects of this movie end. For starters, the ridiculous Oedipus complex subplot with Robert Francis' mother is redundant and tiresome. It's a big strain on the viewer to immediately figure out he needs to "not always listen to mother." Not helping things is the ridiculous, out of place romance with May Wynn, which seems to exist in a different movie. It really damages the mood and pace of the film. In fact, Robert Francis might deliver one of the worst performances in a "classic" film that I've seen. He's extremely wooden, and contrasted with
Bogart and MacMurray, he just can't carry any weight at all. (the rest of this paragraph contains "spoilers" so watch out) In addition, MacMurray's character's odd decision to sellout his friend in court just gives some uncomfortable moral ambiguity to the movie that it really doesn't need. The movie's descent into lame coutroom drama can't be faulted too much, as that plot convention hadn't yet become a cliche in 1954, but it certainly hasn't aged well. The whole courtroom sequence is like pulling teeth, and is nearly unwatchable. And the after-victory party which is "crashed" by the intoxicated defense lawyer who preceeds to give one of the lamest speeches in cinema, playing up the over the top moral ambiguity that MacMurray's character already uncomfortably instated didn't make any sense given the movie's first hour and half. Bogart went crazy, all the sympathy we need to feel for him was given in Bogart's great acting performance, the audience did not need to be batted over the head with it, especially in a scene late in the film where the movie's steam was rapidly deterioating. Finally, the last scene, which sort of takes on a wacky "all's well that ends well" feel seems tacked on, as if we're supposed to feel relieved at wooden stiff-Francis' learning experience. "The dedication to this film is simple--The US Navy" was also a copout for a final quote. The movie wasn't a total condemnation of the Navy, why kiss up? The movie had its themes in mind, let them stand on their own.
Well, that was a pretty big rant for a movie that I overall would recommend. The scenes with Bogart were great, but every time the film left the Caine it sunk (I didn't even realize what an awful pun that was until I typed it).