This film is based upon a Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Herman Wouk. The setting is during WWII. The USS Caine is a small insignificant ship in the US Pacific Fleet. The ship is caught in a raging typhoon and the Ships’ Captain is relieved from command by the Executive Officer. Considered an act of mutiny but the choices are to remove command from the Captain or let the ship sink with all hands on board in the typhoon. The crew believes the Captain is mentally unstable and perhaps even insane. At a later date, there is a trial for the Navy to decide if this is a criminal act or an act of courage.
A fictional story with some action but basically a drama. It’s a story about men fighting for their country. Their individual capabilities, their heroism and their own consciences. Most of the scenes are aboard the Caine. This ship is a mine sweeper in the Pacific. There is a scene with ships under attack as they land on an island. Another scene is a very violent and life threatening storm. There is a sub-plot with a young Ensign, his girlfriend and his mother. There is some social drinking and smoking is accurate for this time period. I thought this was interesting and very good!! 5* (I really liked this movie)
124 min, Drama directed by Edward Dmytryk and written by Stanley Roberts and Michael Blankfort with Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, May Wynn, Tom Tully, E.G. Marshall, Arthur Franz, Lee Marvin, Warner Anderson, Claude Akins, Katherine Warren, Jerry Paris, Steve Brodie.
Note: Amazon gives the novel 4.7* out of 5* with 406 ratings, Imdb 7.7 out of 10 with 23,672 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 92% with 25 critics 87% with 7,548 ratings, Empire Online 4*, Metacritic 63 out of of 100 with 8 critics (positive 6, mixed 2, negative 0), Slant Magazine 3* out of 5*, Common Sense Media Renee Schonfeld, age 12+, positive messages 4*, role models 4*, violence 1*, sex 0, language 0, consumerism 0, drinking drugs & smoking 1*.
Special Note: There was opposition about the casting of Humphrey Bogart because he was much older than Captain Queeg. Bogart was already seriously ill with esophageal cancer but it was not diagnosed until January of 1956. Bogart’s courtroom scene was so powerful that it completely captivated the film technicians and crewmen. He received a round of thunderous applause. Fred Mac Murray was going through a difficult time is his life during filming. His wife had just died and he needed this job as a distraction. The US Navy was never happy about the depiction of Captain Queeg as a madman in the novel. It implied that the Navy would hire or keep in place someone so clearly deranged. This film version skirted around that subject and portrayed him as a victim of battle fatigue or PTSD. Several weeks before filming began, Jose Ferrer broke his right hand. He is seen wearing a cast but his injury is only briefly referred to. In the scene with the waterfall in Yosemite, a large bonfire of red fir bark is ignited and pushed evenly over the edge of the cliff. It appears to onlooker below as a glowing waterfall of sparks and fire. This event happened every evening at 9 PM in Camp Curry. In 1968, the Park Service Director decided to end the Firefall tradition. When visitors asked about the Firefall, they were told that this film had the best footage available. The scars on Van Johnson’s face are real and not make-up. While filming A Guy Named Joe 1943, he was in a car accident and thrown through the windshield. Plastic surgery could not totally remove his scars. In later films, he wore heavy make-up to hide them. In this film ,he felt they added to his character’s appearance.
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