On "The Caine Mutiny" (1954)

The 1954 drama film, "The Caine Mutiny", directed by Edward Dmytryk is a film I have always held in very high regards. The film, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name by Herman Wouk, is set in the Pacific theater during World War II. It features the adventures of several United States naval officers aboard the U.S.S. Caine, a ship governed by the tight-fisted and mentally unstable Captain Queeg, played by Humphrey Bogart. The film also stars Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer and Robert Francis.
After Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg assumes command of the U.S.S. Caine, he sets strict and particular rules for the crew to follow, in ways such as appearance and performance. The slightest departure from these rules was to be met with harsh punishment. The officers of the Caine, who are unused to this kind of strict leadership, soon grow to dislike Queeg. It does not take long for the crew to realize that the captain may possibly suffer from mental illness, most specifically acute paranoia. Eventually, when the Caine is in a battle with a fierce typhoon, the captain is continually giving orders that are leading to ship into danger rather than into safety. Finally, the executive officer Stephen Maryk, (played by Van Johnson,) relieves the captain of duty and steers the ship to safety. Outraged by this rebellion against his authority, Queeg charges the sailors of his crew for mutiny and takes the matter to court. After a long and suspenseful court martial, Maryk is cleared of all charges.
In addition to having superb acting, "The Caine Mutiny" has a great script consisting of memorable lines, beautiful Technicolor photography, and a lucid film scored composed by Max Steiner, who composed the score for other Bogart films, such as Casablanca, and The Big Sleep.
"The Caine Mutiny" features yet another classic tough-guy role for Humphrey Bogart. For almost his entire career, Bogart has almost always played the tough-guy; from gangsters, to detectives, to soldiers, to ship captains. Queeg is a very powerful figure aboard the ship and has the power to frighten and control people. From his first few appearances in the film, there is something malicious about him and an unfairness in the way that he behaves towards his crew, such as harsh punishment for not doing exactly as he says. Queeg expresses his disappointment in one of his sailors, who has failed to execute an order and claims that he did his best, by saying “Your best is only a maximum of inefficiency.”
In addition to being a powerful figure aboard the Caine, Queeg is also a very mysterious figure, to the crew and to the audience. We are convinced of his mental illness because of his unusual behavior, such as his constantly rolling steel balls in the palm of his hand, his fixation on small details, such as the state of his sailors’ clothes, and his reluctance to admit mistakes. There are also the claims made by his crew, but in the end there is really no actual proof. During the court martial, it is revealed that several notified psychiatrists had pronounced Queeg completely rational. This gives rise to the question of whether Queeg really was mentally ill or not. One such psychiatrist claims that Queeg does have a paranoid personality, which would account for his oddities, but that it was not necessarily an illness. This psychiatrist also stated that Queeg’s mental condition may have originated from inferiority problems that had “arisen from an unfavorable childhood and aggravated by some adult experiences.” It makes the viewer wonder more about Queeg’s background before he joined the navy.
The film is also a little vague as to whose side is the “right side”. We are quickly taught to dislike Queeg, and to believe that the crew people are always in the right. However, Maryk claims on one occasion that he had never heard the word “paranoid” before he heard Keefer use it to describe Queeg. Later still, during the court martial, Maryk claims that he could not even tell the difference between the words “paranoid” and “paranoia”. In this sense, he took an extremely large risk in relieving Queeg the night of the typhoon, because he was accusing the captain of being something that he didn’t fully understand the meaning of. Though Maryk does acquire some knowledge of mental illnesses in various books he reads, it is obviously not enough to make the information stick.
One of my favorite scenes of the movie is during the celebration scene after the end of the trial, when the officers of the Caine are celebrating Maryk’s acquittal. In this scene, Barney Greenwald, (played by Jose Ferrer,) the lawyer who represents the defense in the trial makes one of his more notable appearances in the film. He interrupts the party, and accuses the whole crew of not taking Queeg seriously, and claims that they were mistaken to antagonize Queeg as a crazy man the way they had. Greenwald argues that if they had been patient with Queeg, and given him the loyalty he needed, it might not have been necessary for him to be relieved of duty during the typhoon.
Greenwald then turns on the communications officer of the ship, novelist Thomas Keefer, (played by Fred MacMurray.) Keefer had given Maryk the idea that Queeg may have been mentally ill, but had refused to admit this in court. Greenwald ends his series of accusations against the crew by saying to Mr. Keefer, “Stephen Maryk will always be remembered as a mutineer, but you, you’ll publish your novel, make a million bucks, marry a movie star and for the rest of your life you’ll live with your conscience, if you have any.” He then raises a glass of wine to “the real author of the Caine mutiny” before throwing the wine in Keefer’s face. This is a very effective end to a convincing and articulate speech.
In this scene, Greenwald’s main point is that if they crew had given Queeg more loyalty, then the whole problem of his relief during the typhoon might not have come up. Maybe this is true and maybe it isn’t. Greenwald certainly has a point. If you are in a position to follow the orders of an authoritative figure, you really have not choice but to do as this figure says. Queeg is this kind of authoritative figure, but his choices don’t do the ship or the crew much good. Here there is a problem. The crew is expected to follow the captain because he is in control. If the captain’s leadership is only a source of discord for the crew, then the crew should alert him to this fact so that he can hopefully change his ways. If the captain refused to listen and went on making the same mistakes, then that person should not be in command.
Queeg says at one point that it would be good if the crew could work out a way that they could all help everybody work with each other; and when he asks for feedback from the crew, nobody responds. This is rather poor on the part of the crew. Here the captain is asking for help from his team, and they are reluctant to tell him that how he is leadership is not useful to the welfare of the ship. Maybe Queeg would have listened to what they had to say, but then, maybe he wouldn’t. His perfectionist personality would not enable him to admit mistakes, and he might have just acted defensive and difficult. Perhaps relieving Queeg of duty that time was really the only thing that could have been done for the good of the ship.
These are some of the ways that this film keeps me thinking. On a scale of one to four stars, I award "The Caine Mutiny" four stars. In a way, it is a big “what if?” movie. That is one reason why it so good. A good movie always keeps the viewer thinking, long after it has ended. The Caine Mutiny does this for me and more.