Wonderful performances

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2009)

Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, and Jose Ferrer are all involved in one way or another with "The Caine Mutiny," a 1954 film directed by Edward Dmytryk and based on the Herman Wouk novel.
Bogart is Captain Queeg, who follows the no-nonsense Comdr. DeVriess (Tom Tully) as captain of The Caine, a worn out minesweeper. It becomes apparent almost immediately that he's not all there, particularly by Lt. Keefer (MacMurray), who's writing a novel in his spare time. I suppose today we would call Queeg burnt out from years of service on difficult missions. He's okay one minute, and the next he's got the ship running away from battle or conducting an exhaustive search for a strawberry pilferer. During a raging typhoon, he loses control of the ship and himself - in fact, his hand has to be pried off of an instrument, and he gives orders that would, if followed, sink the ship. The second in command, Lt. Maryk (Johnson) takes over the ship over Rule 184 of the Naval code, and everyone follows his orders. A court martial, with Lt. Greenwald (Ferrer) defending Maryk against his better judgment.
It's hard to know what to say about the conclusion of this film and Greenwald's drunken speech, but it's an excellent movie with marvelous performances by all involved. Bogart is stupendous as the whacked out Queeg, and his increasing discomfort during testimony is masterful. The always likable Van Johnson does a great dramatic turn here, as does Fred MacMurray. I used to think of Fred MacMurray as the world's most bland actor - having seen a lot of his work now, he definitely could go well beyond "My Three Sons." His manipulative Keefer is central to the film. Robert Francis, who died at the age of 25 in a plane crash the following year, plays a newcomer to the Navy, Ensign Keith. Boyishly handsome and all-American looking, Francis was a perfect military type, and if his acting wasn't stupendous, he fit well into this type of film and held his own against the vets. He has an extraneous subplot involving a singer (May Wynn) whom he's in love with. Lee Marvin has a small role, but his knowledge of the Navy made him important, and he served as an unofficial adviser on the film.
This is a complicated psychological drama that bears a good deal of thought. We who are not in the military or from military families undoubtedly cannot fathom the seriousness of an actual mutiny. The question is asked indirectly if it could have been avoided and blames everyone involved. Whether or not it could have been avoided, who knows. The fact is, Queeg couldn't handle his assignment. Since he wasn't going to say anything to the higher-ups, I suppose it would have been best if the others had gone to the Admiral as they planned and succeeded in getting him removed. Would they have succeeded? I wonder how likely that scenario is - possibly not very likely. So we're left with a bunch of people going down with their ship rather than cross the captain.
In the end, The Caine Mutiny is the story of courage - Queeg had courage but suffered from battle fatigue; Maryk had the courage to make a controversial decision, but let himself be talked out of approaching the Admiral by Keefer; and Keefer was a yellow-bellowed sap sucker. It falls to Keith, the newcomer, to learn important lessons from each man. He starts by standing up to his mother - seeing his growth is probably the reason for the subplot.