Mister Roberts

Take a run down cargo ship with a motley crew, throw in a pacific island paradise and sign on board four of the biggest Hollywood heavyweights ever, then you are bound to have winning motion picture which stands the test of time.

Henry Fonda re-creates his Broadway role as Lt.Douglas Roberts a navy cargo officer, desperately aching to be transfered from what is nothing more than a floating warehouse, to a destroyer and a chance to get into the fighting.

James Cagney in what is arguably the best of his later roles, plays the selfish and ambitious Captain, who knows that Roberts' work is the key to his own success. With this motive in mind he blocks all of Roberts' requests and makes his life as miserable as possible into the bargain.

It is this story line that provides most of the drama albeit played with a touch of comic frivolity. The true comedy however is provided by Jack Lemmon as the good natured but lazy Ensign, Frank Thurlough Pulver.

Lemmon was a relative newcomer to the movies but none of that seemed evident in his performance. He held his own against three of the best in the business and was awarded an Oscar for his efforts.

However, the highlight of this film for me is the great William Powell as the aging and quick witted Doc.. His comic timing and sophisticated presence was an invaluable asset to any film he made and Mister Roberts is no exception.

Whether he is wise cracking with the crew at sick call or making illegal scotch with his shipmates, Powell steals every scene in which he appears. My personal favourite is when he is called to the captains cabin....ON THE DOUBLE, and he is seen casually strolling slowly and carefree smoking a cigarette, almost as if he was on the Park Avenue of the 1930's where he had made his name.

Cagney's scenes with Lemmon are hilarious. He was a considerate actor and at times you can almost feel the space that he gave Lemmon in order for him to shine. Also the scene in which Fonda confronts Cagney, to ensure the crews liberty, is expertly acted. A must see on the newly released DVD (with commentary by Jack Lemmon himself) is a clip from a 1955 Ed Sullivan show where Fonda and Cagney re-create the scene live and the acting cannot be faulted.

In more than just plot, this film has high points and low points. The high point was the welcome celluloid return of Henry Fonda after an absence of eight years whilst he played Mister Roberts on the New York stage. The low point being, that this was to be William Powell's final movie venture. He had retired in 1953 after How to Marry a Millionaire, but was lured back for "Roberts" by an overwhelming script. But this was to be a final return and I think as swan songs go William Powell indeed had the best.

It was also a troubled production with two directors and constant fall outs with Fonda over the adaptation. To Fonda, Mister Roberts was a work of art he didn't want to see defaced, and he argued bitterly over changes from the original format. Yet the theatre going public and the cinema going public were two different species and the changes were needed.

They must have found the right balance however because we are presented with a flawless motion picture with equal amounts of drama and humour, happiness and sadness and anger and goodwill. This film has the ability to touch everyone on at least one level.

A must-see film with unequaled performances. Recommended.

Mister Roberts is a very personal film for me. This is the first i vividly remember watching with my father. Lt Douglas Roberts is a cargo officer on a cargo ship dubbed "The Bucket". Mister Roberts feels that war in the Pacific is passing him by. An all-star cast and crew adopt this novel and play. Henry Fonda (Grapes of Wrath, On Golden Pond) reprises his role from the play as Roberts. Henry Fonda must clash heads with the captain played by the great James Cagney (Angles with Dirty Faces, Yankee Doodle Dandy). They are joined by William Powell (My Man Godfrey), Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond (It's a Wonderful Life, My Darling Clementine) and Jack Lemmon (Odd Couple, Some Like it Hot). This is Jack Lemmon's first academy award winning performance. This is a movie is filled with humor and drama. This is movie is a great enjoyment. Naturally some things are different from the play and book. This is a great movie to add to your collection.

I was back from combat in Europe when I saw "Mr. Roberts" on the stage. The dialogue rang true; it had the flavor of the rough speech of military men. This was lacking in the cleaned-up film version. On the stage, the men of The Reluctant often hinted at scatological tidbits with which all servicemen were familiar, and the audience had a lot of former seamen and soldiers in it, accompanied by their dates. I often heard male laughter, then whispering which was followed by female laughter. One more thing: The scenes with drunken sailors were believable in the stage production - not so in the film. Whoever did the voice coaching for the movie had no idea of how drunks talk. Having said all of this, I must add that I enjoyed the movie. Watching the four master actors - Fonda, Powell, Cagney and Lemmon - was pure delight. Jack Lemmon received an Oscar for his portrayal of Ensign Pulver in the film and Larry Blyden was just as good in the stage part.

'Mister Roberts' is one of two movies that I sometimes name as my all-time favorite movies. The other is 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' with Errol Flynn. I definitely believe that this is one of Henry Fonda's finest roles.

When my now nineteen year old nephew was younger, he would ask to watch my copy of 'Mister Roberts' on VHS just for the hilarious scene where Pulver blows up the laundry and the ship starts to fill up with soap suds. I have a copy of the play which includes pictures from when Fonda played the role of Doug Roberts on stage, and there are some differences from the play, but those differences certainly work in this movie.

I can't imagine better casting for any of these parts--

Henry Fonda as Doug Roberts

Jack Lemmon as Ensign Pulver

Ward Bond as Dowdy

William Powell as Doc

This is an excellent story of a man who yearns to serve in a war, but yet not to be a hero. He just wants to do his part, and he thinks that in order for his part to be important he has to be in combat. It takes him a while, and a few lectures from Doc, to realize that what he and the crew on the 'bucket' on which they serve do a necessary and important job even as they sail from boredom to tedium and back again, as Roberts says in his letter to Pulver in one of the movie's last scenes. The men are bored, and they can't stand their captain; and during the scene where the captain calls them to their battle stations after finding his special palm tree missing most of them aren't even sure where their battle stations are! The character of Doc has never even seen a battleship and he's in the navy. The entire movie is worth just the scenes of the crew returning from liberty, the making of the scotch, and the soap suds incident.

For a while when I was up at Northern Arizona University I had these lines from the opening scene as part of my answering machine message:

"Now here this. Now here this. Revelry. I repeat...revelry! Attention all hands..."

I recommend this movie very highly and rate it nine out of ten stars!

MISTER ROBERTS (3+ outta 5 stars)

Funny, kind of sentimental war movie starring Henry Fonda as the title character, forced to serve on a Navy vessel for one of the worst Captains ever (James Cagney). Mr. Roberts dreams of getting off the ship, which is devoted mostly to transporting cargo and being transferred to a battleship to do his bit for WW2. Unfortunately, he makes the Captain look too good... and the Captain refuses to let him go. Meanwhile, the crew's morale keeps going down and down due to the Captain's incompetence and hardheadedness. Classic 50s comedy has some great performances... Fonda, Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon are all in great form! Very similar in style to TV's M*A*SH... in fact, the sentimental finale reminded me quite a bit of a much-heralded episode of that show. Also has the distinction of having one of the best closing lines in cinematic history: "It is I, Ensign Pulver..." Ahhh, I can't spoil it and tell you the rest... see the movie for yourself.