Another powerful performance by Bogart with top supporting cast

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2000)

"The Caine Mutiny" features one of Bogart's most powerful roles - he was brilliant as the paranoid Captain Queeg and in my opinion should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this part. He was nominated for the award but was beaten by Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" which was of course another great performance so it was difficult for the Academy voters to choose. "The Caine Mutiny" was nominated that year for six Oscars but did not pick up one! Also nominated for Best Actor were Bing Crosby for "The Country Girl", James Mason ("A Star Is Born") and Dan O'Herlihy ("The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe"). The film had an outstanding cast including Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, E. G. Marshall, Lee Marvin, Tom Tulley and Claude Atkins. A gripping storyline (from the novel and play by Herman Wouk), top drawer acting, beautifully photographed in Technicolor and produced by Stanley Kramer. The weak part of the film was the totally unnecessary love story between Robert Francis and May Wynn (I wonder whatever happened to them?). This slowed down the whole film (which ran for over two hours) and it would have greatly improved and tightened up the story by cutting out this romance which was extraneous to the plot anyway. Director Edward Dmytryk did a magnificent job handling the impressive cast and particularly in the courtroom scenes when Captain Queeg (Bogart) is on the stand: "Ah .. but the strawberries, that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with geometric logic that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist ... " What a cast! What a film! And in common with most of Bogart's films this is worth repeated viewings. 10/10. Clive Roberts.