Year: 1954
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, José Ferrer, EG Marshall, Tom Tully, May Wynn, Katherine Warren, Lee Marvin, Claude Akins, Arthur Franz, Warner Anderson, Jerry Paris
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Tully), Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Dramatic or Comedic Score
Phew. This may be my favorite movie I've watched yet. I can't say enough good about it. I have yet to watch On the Waterfront but it's gonna have to be something special to beat this one.
Princeton graduate and newly minted ensign Willie Keith (Robert Francis) is assigned to the USS Caine, a destroyer and minesweeper, that isn't at all what the young inexperienced officer expected. The men are allowed to hang around in improper uniforms, smoking and dropping their garbage on the deck, and their drills are, shall we say, less than 100% efficient. The Caine is on its last legs, and its captain, a worn-out sea dog named DeVriess (Tom Tully), seems lazy and uncouth, and Keith thinks he's not fit for command, but he has one thing Keith does not have, and that is practical experience. But Keith's prayers seem to be answered when DeVriess is reassigned and a new captain, Philip Queeg, comes aboard.
Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) is a piece of work. He's barely installed when he begins losing it over the smallest violation of regulations, including uniform tunics being worn untucked, officers not being completely clean shaven, and other such tiny infractions. As he instructs the crew "Aboard my ship, excellent performance is standard, standard performance is substandard and substandard performance is not permitted to exist". One wonders how Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day would deal with this guy.
"Well, he certainly is Navy," says Ensign Keith, trying to find the bright side. "Yeah," says Lt. Keefer (Fred MacMurray). "So was Captain Bligh".
But Queeg's not just a hardnose, he also begins to show signs that he's not entirely stable. The first sign of this is when he begins to berate Keefer and Keith over one seaman not having his tunic tucked in, and while he's doing it, the helm warns that they're about to make a complete circle and run over their own tow line. Queeg demands not to be interrupted and goes back to his tirade...and the ship does in fact run over its tow line, at which point Queeg starts yelling about substandard equipment that comes loose from just being dragged. Eventually he's yelling about a seaman without a lifejacket on (who doesn't exist) or yelling about the "redhead" at the gun port (all seamen at the gun port wearing helmets at the time. Finally he demands a full investigation over some missing strawberries. That's the straw that breaks the camel's back and convinces the XO, Maryk (Van Johnson), that they need to approach the Admiralty and lodge a formal complaint.
But when Maryk, Keefer and Keith get aboard the carrier of the region's Admiral, they see a sort of precision and professionalism they're totally unused to and Keefer realizes that anyone who hasn't witnessed Queeg's behavior would simply dismiss the three of them as substandard officers who want to shirk duty. But then a storm hits and Queeg's reaction isn't just odd or hard to deal with, it becomes dangerous. What to do? Well...read the title of this movie again.
I had been under the impression that a majority of this movie was a courtroom drama, but the actual Court-Martial starts in the last half hour. By this time we've spent enough time with the crew of the Caine that we feel like we really know them, which helps us to feel the same way Maryk and Keith do when the trial begins. It doesn't help when it becomes clear their court-assigned attorney (José Ferrer) believes they're guilty.
Man, what a line-up of talent this movie has. Just look at those names up there! That it managed only two acting nominations is something, because I thought Johnson, Ferrer and MacMurray were all excellent, and I got a kick out of the two lunkhead sailors, Meatball and Horrible (Lee Marvin and Claude Akins).
If there is a weak link in this cast, it's Robert Francis in the role of Keith, who at first seems to be the lead, and who maintains a central role throughout. This was Francis's film debut, and unfortunately he would only make three more before dying the very next year from this film's release in a plane crash at age 25. He was on the radar as being the next big star, but quite frankly I don't know if he would have made it. As Keith, he is stilted, wooden, and dead-eyed, and unfortunately the first half of this movie spends way too much time focusing on him. One of the draggier parts is when he heads for shore leave while the incident with the tow line is investigated. It almost grinds the film to a halt, but fortunately just when I was wondering how much more time it was going to spend on him, it ended and we got back to the boat.
Humphrey Bogart, who as I mentioned in my review of The Barefoot Contessa had only three more years of life left to him at this point (he already was dying of cancer, though his official diagnosis wouldn't come for two more years), received his final Oscar nomination for this film and dangit if he doesn't go out with a bang. I've always thought of Bogart as being a reserved actor with an unexplainable magnetism that made him rule every picture he did, but now I see that he's a man of great subtlety. As the unbalanced Queeg, you can sense the danger from him the moment he comes on board, and with only the barest change of voice and facial expression can go from just a rigid naval commander to an unhinged lunatic, while a lesser actor might rant and rave.
So far, I haven't seen Marlon Brando's winning performance this year (yeah, I know, criminal of me) but I do know that in a series of weird choices, the Academy failed to award Bogart for his iconic performance in Casablanca, and later gave him an obvious make-up Oscar for The African Queen, in the process taking the Oscar away from Brando for his iconic performance in A Streetcar named Desire. This means that this year (1954), Brando would win for On the Waterfront instead (review coming soon!). If I could change time, I'd give Bogie the Oscar for Casablanca, Brando his first for Streetcar and Bogie a second for this film.
But let's talk about the other nominated performance from this film. What made Tom Tully, a little-remembered actor who seemed to mostly do television, stand out in this crowd? Well, the fact that he's only in this for about 15 minutes and yet makes a lasting impression is likely part of it. He portrays Captain DeVriess as a man tired of life. Every breath sounds like it took effort. Every stare communicates his desire to be somewhere else. And yet, he's not incompetent and his men genuinely love him, and not because he's an easy hand. There's a touching scene where, as he's leaving the ship, the men present him with a watch they've gotten for him as a going away gift. He sternly reminds them that giving gifts to their commanding officer is a violation of regulations. He then takes one step off the ship onto the porting ramp and turns and says "Well, would you look at that. Some idiot left his watch here. Might as well take it as a souvenir..."
His nomination was earned, I think, but it's kinda criminal that Fred MacMurray didn't get one as well. I enjoyed his sarcastic, yet serious performance, and his character had a genuine arc that played out in an unexpected, yet satisfying way. In many ways he was a self-insert for the author of the book and play this movie is based on, Herman Wouk, but for once he's not the central character or even a heroic character at all, though many of the film's best lines are his, and MacMurray delivers them perfectly.
I don't care who you are, I recommend this movie. If you haven't seen it, you need to. So far it's the best of the movies I've watched for this blog, and I'm only sorry it took me this long to see it.
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