El motín del Caine

The striking thing about the film to me was that it starts out seemingly as a jovial piece, it's light hearted in structure for the first third but then we are introduced to Humphrey Bogart's Captain Phillip Queeg and things start to change rather dramatically. Capatain Queeg takes command of the USS Caine and promptly tries to whip the shoddy (had it good for too long) crew into shape, but soon the cracks start to appear in the Captain's persona, and during a violent storm the crew decide enough is enough.

Adapted from Herman Wouk's much lauded page turner, The Caine Mutiny triumphs in spite of its flaws because it lulls you in craftily to then unleash quality drama in the form of Bogart's quite brilliant performance as Queeg. It's a class show from Bogart as he plays out the various forms of sanity with terrific results. Backed up by Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer and Van Johnson the film isn't found wanting for acting gravitas, sadly the direction from Edward Dmytryk does plod at the times when the film cries out for impetus, and a romantic subplot involving Robert Francis's Ens. Willis Seward Keith has no right to be here, since it really is a waste of time. Yet they are forgivable flaws, for this be a cracking picture that is essential for Bogart purists, and essential viewing for those interested in a quality story telling up there on the screen. 9/10

Great novels often disappoint when brought to the screen, but superior acting performances make The Caine Mutiny a classic on its own merits.

The movie takes place on a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific during World War II. To the consternation of the Caine's crew, a popular captain (Tom Tully) is replaced by a disturbed despot named Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), who finds himself in over his head. As the stresses of command multiply, Queeg's paranoia and cowardice soon become apparent to Lieutenant Thomas Keefer (Fred MacMurray), a writer in civilian life. Keefer continually tries to convince Executive Officer Steve Maryk (Van Johnson) that Queeg is insane, but Keefer won't help Maryk when the Exec asks Keefer to help convince higher authority that Queeg should be relieved. During a typhoon, Queeg's poor seamanship nearly capsizes the Caine; Maryk relieves him by reason of insanity and saves the ship. Maryk and Willie Keith (Robert Francis), Officer of the Deck when Queeg is relieved, stand trial for mutiny. They are reluctantly defended by Lt Barney Greenwald (Jose Ferrer), who must expose Queeg's mental illness to save the defendants. In so doing Greenwald forces the Caine's officers to examine their own motives regarding their roles in Queeg's relief and their lack of loyalty to him.

Bogart is brilliant, giving the greatest performance of his career, his quirky mannerisms and tortured demeanor contrasting starkly with his usual roles. MacMurray is superb as the glib slippery novelist who must eventually deal with his own cowardice, more damning than Queeg's because of his intelligence and insight. Johnson plays Maryk more timidly than he appears in the book, to the detriment of the movie. Ferrer gives a solid performance. Tully excels as the crusty Capt DeVriess, Queeg's predecessor.

The weakest part of Wouk's book is the largely irrelevant romance between Willie Keith and a nightclub singer of whom his wealthy mother disapproves. Unhappily this vapid subplot finds its way into the movie, serving only to reveal Francis and his love interest May Wynn as lousy actors whose mercifully brief cinematic careers were well deserved. Important character developments in the novel could have been included instead of this unnecessary pap.

Despite its flaws, The Caine Mutiny is a must see for serious movie fans. Bogart and MacMurray give performances which remain fresh and compelling with every viewing of the film. You can't ask more from an actor than that.

Historically there were two great United States Naval mutinies. In 1842 a naval sloop, the U.S.S. Somers, had a court martial for three crew members (one, Midshipman Philip Spencer, was the son of Secretary of War John Canfield Spencer), which ended with their being found guilty and hanged. To this day there is debate if Spencer (a troubled youth) was even serious about seizing the "Somers". The other occurred in 1944 at Port Chicago, California, when, a few weeks after a terrible accident that killed many men loading ammunition on a boat, their replacements refused to work under existing unsafe conditions. This led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision - against the workers, who claimed they were not under military law.

But the best known mutiny in the American navy is that on the U.S.S. Caine, during the hurricane that preceded the battle of Okinawa. That this is a fictional mutiny does not seem to attract any attention. THE CAINE MUTINY was a successful novel, Broadway play ("THE CAINE MUTINY COURT MARTIAL") and a great movie. It remains the American equivalent of the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty.

The performances of the leads, Bogart, Johnson, MacMurray (his second of three great heels), Ferrer, Tully, and E.G.Marshall are all first rate, as are the supporting cast (which includes Lee Marvin, Claude Atkins, and Jerry Paris - all of whom had quite substantial careers after this film). Only Robert Francis did not have a substantial career after his fine Ensign Keith - he died in a plane crash in 1955.

There are mental images from the film (mostly connected to Bogart's Queeg) that people remember - even spoof. Every time you see some character showing nervous ticks, if he or she pulls out a pair of small metal balls and roll them in their hand, it is a salute to Bogie's originally doing it in THE CAINE MUTINY. And his magnificent moment of success: "the strawberries", and how he proved the theft with geometric precision, remains a signal that the person speaking has too many fixations.

Interestingly, the film makes Queeg better (if still sick) than the play does. When cross examined by Greenwald at the court martial of Maryk and Keith, Queeg is asked about whether or not he overused his right to free transport of liquor and other items from Hawaii to the mainland from the navy. Queeg at first denies it, but when Greenwald says he can bring in (as witnesses) people connected with the sale of the items and the transport of them, Queeg suddenly remembers that he might have. This is not in the film, but it shows that Queeg was not all that clean an officer.

That aside, the impact of the film is still terrific half a century after it was shot. It illustrates that personality flaws frequently causes the problems that affect all of us, and that we need more understanding of each other's problems to avoid the bigger ones. From a case of over-extended battle fatigue, the crew of a warship are driven to accept an act of mutiny against it's captain in an emergency situation. And it almost gets two officers disgraced or hanged.

Director Edward Dmytryk and screenwriter Stanley Roberts, adapting Herman Wouk's novel, certainly didn't set out to make an anti-Navy movie concerning a junkyard Naval ship beset with a paranoid captain, and indeed their "simple" dedication at the end is to the entire United States Navy, yet the plot mechanisms are slanted in that direction even if the handling is not. Beginning the picture with a green "Princeton tiger" and Naval Academy grad attempting to woo a band singer before duty calls was a safe, stolid move, yet Wouk's story manages to cut much wider and deeper than the Hollywood generalities and, once his plot gets cooking, the film is vastly entertaining. Humphrey Bogart is the new by-the-books captain aboard a Naval bottom-feeder, quickly driving his crew and his vessel into the ground with his idiosyncratic behavior. Dymtryk is careful while introducing all the different personalities aboard ship, and he doesn't want us to miss a trick, yet in the film's final stages (after the court martial, when defense attorney José Ferrer has his say), the tone of the picture does an about-face and hopes to show us all sides of the situation. The filmmakers want to have their cake and eat it too, and the resulting epilogue goes down like bad medicine. Still, the performances are first-rate, particularly by Bogart and, in perhaps his finest acting turn, Van Johnson. Seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Bogart as Best Actor, and Tom Tully (playing Commander DeVriess) as Best Supporting Actor. *** from ****

The Caine Mutiny works well on so many levels. It is a great insight into navy life, a first rate legal drama, and an unforgettable character study. Jose Ferrer and Fred MacMurray are superb, and indeed so is the entire cast, but the film clearly belongs to Humphrey Bogart's Captain Queeg. It's a real treat to see 'Bogie' in a film where he isn't a gangster or a romantic with a gruff exterior. Bogart spectacularly conveys the sheer complexity of his character: the quirks, the devotion to duty, the demand for perfection, the refusal to accept his own fallibility. It is a truly exceptional performance. Strongly recommended, 9/10.