Year of Release: 1954Country of Origin: USA
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis
Plot outline: When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny (IMDb).
Humphrey Bogart really shows his range as an actor, playing against type as the compulsive, paranoid, Captain Queeg. From the speech patters, to the darting eyes, and nervous habits, Bogart creates the foundation that scores of actors would build on in years to come. Fred MacMurray, despite relatively little screen time, turns in a particularly nuanced performance that plays in perfect counterpoint to Bogart’s, while José Ferrer resists the urge to overact in what could be a showy role and instead effectively punches home the movie’s very sober message. The only real problem with the movie is the length. There’s an entire sub-plot featuring Robert Francis and May Wynn that doesn’t really pay off, but shows promise. Interestingly, according to the IMDb, there initially were two scripts for the movie, one with the romance and one without. Both scripts ran over three hours and fleshed out many more of the characters, but the studio head insisted the movie run two hours and thus much of the material was cut, but, surprisingly, the romance stayed. Despite the dull romance, the characters are all credible and well defined. (FML)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
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