The year is 1944, and as World War II continues to rage, Ensign "Willie" Keith (Robert Francis) is assigned to the run-down USS Caine, initially commanded by William DeVriess (Tom Tully). DeVriess is popular with the crew thanks to his lax approach to discipline and keeping order, both of which Keith is a stickler about. He's excited when DeVriess is transferred to another vessel, replaced by Francis Phillip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), a seasoned veteran with a reputation for running a tight ship. Queeg's hard-nosed attitude rubs the other officers the wrong way, particularly Lt. Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray), who resents being in the navy and dreams of becoming a novelist when his service is over.
A naval captain's insanity provokes a mutiny, leading to a gripping court martial drama. The Caine Mutiny was originally a 1951 bestselling novel by Herman Wouk (1915 - 2019) - so best-selling, in fact, that it dethroned James Jones's From Here to Eternity from the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Wouk had served in the navy, serving on two minesweepers, and was a combat veteran of the Pacific Theater of World War II, including the Battle of Okinawa. He wrote his first novel, Aurora Dawn, during his off-duty hours, which he sent to his philosophy professor at Columbia, Irwin Edman. Edman passed the manuscript along to an editor, resulting in Aurora Dawn's publication in 1947. After the commercial failure of his next book, City Boy, he began working on The Caine Mutiny, drawing on his experiences in the navy. The book was a huge best-seller, and he adapted it to the stage as The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which ran on Broadway for a year and was a huge critical and commercial success. Given how popular both the book and the play were, it's not at all surprising Hollywood smelled a sure-fire hit with a film adaptation. However, few studios felt like dealing with the hassle of getting the US Navy's cooperation, which was essential to getting this movie off the ground. The navy, no fan of the original novel, objected to the depiction of a madman being in control of one of its ships, and it was only after the book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952 that they relented. The film rights were eventually purchased by producer Stanley Kramer, who had his own independent production unit within Columbia Pictures, through which he'd produced a string of high-quality films that unfortunately lost money for the studio at the box office. With the script and crew lined up, negotiations with the navy took 15 months before they gave their blessing. However, concessions had to be made along the way, such as depicting Captain Queeg as suffering from PTSD or combat fatigue, rather than simply being nuts or inept. A disclaimer was also added to the movie that no mutiny had ever occurred in US naval history in real life. Even with this roadblock addressed, The Caine Mutiny's production had its struggles. Wouk was originally hired to adapt his book to the big screen, but the film's director, Edward Dmytryk, was dissatisfied with the results and had him replaced with Stanley Roberts, who had been writing screenplays since the 1930s. His previous works not only included numerous Westerns and the last of the Thin Man movies (1947's Song of the Thin Man) but also a film adaptation of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1951), which starred Fredric March. However, Roberts would later quit the production after substantial cuts in the screenplay were demanded to keep the film to a two-hour running time. Dmytryk and Kramer also clashed over casting Captain Queeg, with Dmytryk wanting Richard Widmark, who'd earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the noir thriller Kiss of Death (1947). However, producer Stanley Kramer overrode this decision and selected Humphrey Bogart as Queeg, even though he was much older than the character as originally written. Bogart, for his part, desperately wanted the role, and Columbia took advantage of this, pressuring him into take a lower salary - which Bogart obviously resented. WARNING: Here be spoilers! Read further at your own risk! The year is 1944, and as World War II continues to rage, Ensign "Willie" Keith (Robert Francis) is assigned to the run-down USS Caine, initially commanded by William DeVriess (Tom Tully). DeVriess is popular with the crew thanks to his lax approach to discipline and keeping order, both of which Keith is a stickler about. He's excited when DeVriess is transferred to another vessel, replaced by Francis Phillip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), a seasoned veteran with a reputation for running a tight ship. Queeg's hard-nosed attitude rubs the other officers the wrong way, particularly Lt. Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray), who resents being in the navy and dreams of becoming a novelist when his service is over. However, it soon becomes apparent that there's something seriously wrong with Queeg. His mania for punishing disciplinary infractions sometimes put the ship and her crew in real danger, which he covers up and avoids taking responsibility for. This earns him the scorn and contempt of his officers, and while Queeg occasionally attempts to smooth things over, nobody's buying it. Keefer in particular accuses Queeg of being mentally unfit for command, and recommends the executive officer, Stephen Marek, relieve Queeg of his duties. Maryk indignantly resists the idea at first, but when Queeg endangers the ship during a typhoon, Maryk and Keith believe they have no choice and mutiny. At their court martial, the mutineers are reluctantly defended by Barney Greenwald (José Ferrer), the only lawyer willing to take their case. Things aren't helped when Keefer lies on the stand about his role in the mutiny. As for what happens next...well, you might figure out the outcome of the court martial, but I really don't want to give away what follows. Courtroom dramas are usually a good vehicle for tense drama and strong performances, and The Caine Mutiny is among the best I've seen in this genre on both fronts. I can understand why Bogart wanted to play Queeg so badly - he's a brilliantly-written character who you can empathize with one minute and despise the next, and Bogart expertly captures both facets of his personality. It's arguably the best performance of his career. (After filming his rambling monologue during the movie's climax, everybody on set just stopped to watch Bogart's performance, and gave him a round of applause when the take was over.) As strong as Bogart's performance is, the rest of the cast doesn't have any trouble keeping up with him. José Ferrer doesn't get a heck of a lot of screentime, but he make the most of every minute he's in this movie. Stern, principled, and imposing all at once, he brings dignity and weight to his performance, and his final scene in the movie is no less captivating than Bogart's. Fred MacMurray also has a chance to shine as the above-it-all Keefer, his contempt and self-entitlement appalling and infuriating, but never overblown to the point of exaggeration, and his final scene is no less potent than Bogart's or Ferrer's in its own way. Van Johnson saw this film as his chance to break away from the lightweight comedies he'd been stuck in, and he certainly didn't waste the opportunity, nailing his role as an officer torn between his responsibilities to his captain and the welfare of the ship. And yes, because other people will call me out on it if I don't mention it, Lee Marvin has a small supporting role in this movie, and he also served as an unofficial technical adviser on the film, due to his prior naval experience. As for Robert Francis as Ensign Keith, this was his first on-screen role, the first of only four films he was in before his death in a plane crash at the age of 25. His performance isn't quite as strong as the rest of the cast, but the potential is clearly there, just waiting for more experience to bring it out. It doesn't help that his character development was a casualty of cuts made to the script. In the original novel, Keith is the main character, and we follow his development from spoiled rich kid to a responsible officer. However, the film reduced Keith's significance in the plot in favor of beefing up Queeg's role. I've talked a lot about the acting in this movie, but that's not the one and only thing that's good about it. Stanley Roberts and Michael Blankfort crafted a sharp script that gives the cast plenty to work with. Aside from an interlude with Keith and his fiancée May (May Wynn, who took her screen name for her character's name in this film) that slows things down, the film is evenly paced, by which I mean it doesn't drag or feel rushed. According to Dmytryk, almost an hour's worth of scenes were cut from the script to keep it at two hours, at the expense of further character development, to allow for more showings and ticket sales. Without knowing what was cut, I can't say for sure if this was a good choice or not, but whatever stays in definitely flows smoothly. The cinematography and editing are excellent, enhancing the story and the performances without distracting from them. For example, during the climax of the court martial, Bogart's rant is shot in a single take (with only one cutaway to his hands) before returning to an uncomfortably tight close-up on his face which highlights Queeg's deterioration - and the silence that follows is chilling. And, of course, there's the rousing Max Steiner score, probably my favorite of all his works. The Caine Mutiny was a colossal hit, easily recouping all of Columbia's losses from Kramer's previous films for the studio. (We're literally talking ten flops in a row, although they received critical acclaim for their quality and production values.) It racked up seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bogart, and several technical awards. However, politics likely prevented the film from winning any of them. Dmytryk had originally been one of the Hollywood Ten, filmmakers who had refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)'s witch hunts. After spending six months in jail, though, he relented and named names, making him a pariah in the film industry. (However, he still received a nomination from the Director's Guild of America, for The Caine Mutiny.) Dmytryk remains critical of the final film, regretting the character development that was removed from the script. Many critics, however, praised the film's concise adaptation of the source material, as well as its performances and technical merits. There are other ways The Caine Mutiny has left its mark, from being the origin of Michael Caine's stage name to inspiring the drafting of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution - particularly, what to do if a president disagreed with a decision to step aside because they were deemed unable to carry out their duties. A co-worker of mine who served in the navy told me that The Caine Mutiny has been used in lessons on proper leadership. And, of course, there have been multiple characters inspired by Bogart's depiction of Queeg, such as Commodore Matt Decker from the Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine." (That's not supposition on my part - William Windom, who played Decker, cited Bogart's performance as inspiring his own.) The Caine Mutiny is admittedly a higher-profile movie than I usually review on this blog, but the point of the INCspotlight has always been to introduce classics that modern audiences might not be familiar with and would like if they give it a try - and this is a classic I would definitely encourage you to see. I've watched it several times, and I get drawn in each time, even though I know how it's going to turn out. Even by modern standards, I'd say it holds up extremely well. The Caine Mutiny is one movie I'd definitely call a must-see. Its captivating performances alone are worth watching, but there's plenty else here from a film-craft perspective to admire. But don't just take my word for it. Do yourself a favor and make sure to check it out.
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