The Caine Mutiny, 1954

I love this movie but it's screwed up. The love story subplot is entirely distracting and unnecessary - a Navy man, his fiance and some sort of Freudian mommy issues - and Robert Francis is just a big stiff as the central hero, Ensign Keith. The role would have been right in the wheelhouse of Montgomery Clift, or someone like him, but instead it was given to an expressionless bag of bolts like Mr. Francis. Also, according to Wikipedia, director Edward Dmytryk thought this thing should have been even longer, 3-4 hours long. Well, sorry there Dmytryk, but you need to lay off the potato vodka because that's just crazy talk. I don't know much about the book - apparently it's one of those epic '50s door stops - but this movie is too slow as it is. It needed twenty minutes lopped off. But I still give it five stars because it has my favorite Humphrey Bogart performance. He's jumpy and unnerving as the authoritarian Captain Queeq - constantly fidgeting with these metal ball bearings - but he does generate some sympathy. He's not a villian even if you do side with the mutineers. In a career of great roles I think this is Bogart's best. When this picture concentrates on the mutiny and it's aftermath, it is tense. Jose Ferrer, Fred MacMurray and Van Johnson are all excellent. This movie needed a sharper focus, and a more interesting actor than Robert Francis to anchor it, but it's still pretty damn great.

What did you think about this review?

Thank you for voting.

Like Dislike

Abuse report sent

Report abuse