BOGEY NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE IN MARITIME CLASSIC
Added 8/8/2009
This is a GREAT movie and one of my all-time favorites. Just when you thought Bogey was packing it in he provides us with one last great performance. He plays Commander Philip Francis Queeg, the Captain of a US naval ship during WW2. The veteran Queeg appears to be an eccentric, aloof and pompous old tyke. He is surrounded by a basically much younger bunch of subservient officers who probably wish they had one half of his experience and bark. The group is led by the second-in-command Lieutenant Steve Maryk played by the always charismatic vet actor Van Johnson. Fred MacMurray, a vastly underrated performer [remember his all-time UNFORGETTABLE kick-butt performance in DOUBLE IMDEMNITY, 1944] plays Lieutenant Tom Keefer, a self-serving, judgmental, know-it-all sycophant. Eyebrows are continually raised onboard with Queeg's increasingly odd behavior. The "strawberries" caper is a beaut. The level-headed and practical Maryk seems to brush things off as normal aging and long-time-out-in-the-sea quirks while the perturbingly intrusive Keefer defines Queeg as a paranoid loon. Things come to a head during a nocturnal typhoon that threatens to upend the ship. Queeg, called to the bridge as the ship is being rocked, makes the wrong calls, is questioned and ultimately breaks down. As Queeg freezes with lives at stake Maryk, citing Naval regulations, relieves Queeg of duty and takes over command of the ship. This is a stirring scene. Maryk is able to save the ship but he, along with all his officers, are accused of mutiny and court-martialled. Things look bleak as there are no lawyers willing to take the case. Jose Ferrer plays the military lawyer willing to give it a shot. Ferrer is perfect for this role. Courtroom interrogation, banter and repartee is lots of fun but most evocative is Ferrer's final verbal assault and denudation of Queeg's psyche. The sight of a tired, lonely, neglected and war-beaten Queeg, sitting and twirling his fetish-like metal spheres in his hand to a disturbing clicking sound is memorable and worth the price of your ticket. But it ain't over yet as the masterful Ferrer uses the post-acquittal party to unload on the saved officers---some prima donnas, some passive-aggressive, some not having a clue as to what part of the system failed. Ferrer's drunken exposition and rebuke of MacMurray's character and his final challenge is a CLASSIC and can't be missed. Ferrer is AWESOME. Indeed, Queeg was part of a system [military] where teamwork is essential for success as well as survival. Unfortunately, often leaders are envied, despised and even ostracized by their men and neglected and objectified by a system that frowns upon, and may not be willing to recognize, mental dissolution. Queeg had no one who would listen for the purpose of helping him, but there were many who would listen to excise him. Bogart's performance was terrific---poignant, detached, marvelously underplayed for the stars around him---further cementing his status as an icon of American cinema.
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Great storyline and actor ensemble!
Added 7/14/2009
This is a first-class and well-acted movie. The plot is gripping and kind of different from the usual Bogart films. I'm also a big fan of multi-talented Jose Ferrer, and as usual he delivers with a superb acting job.
The picture quality and sound is very good and the 1.85:1 aspect ratio makes it even better.
Bottom line, with all these great actors and Edward Dmytryk as the director, how can anything go wrong?! Buy this one.
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The Caine Mutiny
Added 5/9/2009
I bought this movie for a paper I had to write for a psychology class. The movie isn't something I would have watched for personal enjoyment however, the DVD was new and in perfect condition. I received the DVD in 1 day!
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Who is guilty and who is not?
Added 3/19/2009
I rate 'The Caine Mutiny' as the second best of all of the Bogart movies. I rate 'Treasure of Sierra Madre' slightly higher but, in both movies, Bogart's character undergoes a toxic personality breakdown. He does a magnificent job in both movies.
In 'The Caine Mutiny' the flawed Queeg disintegrates under the pressure of battle and gains the perjorative of 'Old Yellow Stains'. Officers, under the influence of the MacMurray character, mutiny, taking over the unhappy ship.
There is a trial in the course of which Queeg totally decompensates under interrogation. The mutineers...who might have been hanged...are acquitted. The defense attorney shows up at the acquittal party. He shows up drunk and angry. He identifies the slimy and cowardly MacMurray character [who, by crawfishing at all the right times, has avoided indictment] as the real author of the 'Caine Mutiny' and throws a drink in his face. A surprise ending for a great movie.
Ron Braithwaite author of novels--'Skull Rack' and 'Hummingbird God'--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.
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"There's the right way, the wrong way, the Navy way, and my way--and if you do things my way, we'll get along!"
Added 2/8/2009
Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) was simply a man who had seen too much of war... With the excitable tendency of rolling a pair of steel balls in his hand, he censures the error of incorrectness on everything but himself falling as an easy victim to the intrigues of self-serving officers who felt that their panicked captain is mentally not suitable to command the ship...
A subplot, seeming to lack common sense, between two young lovers (Robert Francis and May Wynn) only served to lessen the concentration and distract our attention from the real story... Also, at the court-martial, a long trial sequence, was clearly anticlimactic, though it included the film's most tense and unforgettable scene, that of Queeg disintegrating as he pronounced his statement...
But we had noticed it all before, after all, aboard the Navy destroyer, the U.S.S. Caine... We had seen Queeg as a strict disciplinarian and a compulsive, unstable commander, earning, in his limited imagination, the total disregard of both officers and crew... So we knew what would occur when he got on the witness stand...
"The Caine Mutiny" is a splendid character study, a tale of bravery and cowardice at odds with one another... The film received seven Academy Award nominations included one to Humphrey Bogart who delivered a terrific performance...
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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BOGEY NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE IN MARITIME CLASSIC
Added 8/8/2009
This is a GREAT movie and one of my all-time favorites. Just when you thought Bogey was packing it in he provides us with one last great performance. He plays Commander Philip Francis Queeg, the Captain of a US naval ship during WW2. The veteran Queeg appears to be an eccentric, aloof and pompous old tyke. He is surrounded by a basically much younger bunch of subservient officers who probably wish they had one half of his experience and bark. The group is led by the second-in-command Lieutenant Steve Maryk played by the always charismatic vet actor Van Johnson. Fred MacMurray, a vastly underrated performer [remember his all-time UNFORGETTABLE kick-butt performance in DOUBLE IMDEMNITY, 1944] plays Lieutenant Tom Keefer, a self-serving, judgmental, know-it-all sycophant. Eyebrows are continually raised onboard with Queeg's increasingly odd behavior. The "strawberries" caper is a beaut. The level-headed and practical Maryk seems to brush things off as normal aging and long-time-out-in-the-sea quirks while the perturbingly intrusive Keefer defines Queeg as a paranoid loon. Things come to a head during a nocturnal typhoon that threatens to upend the ship. Queeg, called to the bridge as the ship is being rocked, makes the wrong calls, is questioned and ultimately breaks down. As Queeg freezes with lives at stake Maryk, citing Naval regulations, relieves Queeg of duty and takes over command of the ship. This is a stirring scene. Maryk is able to save the ship but he, along with all his officers, are accused of mutiny and court-martialled. Things look bleak as there are no lawyers willing to take the case. Jose Ferrer plays the military lawyer willing to give it a shot. Ferrer is perfect for this role. Courtroom interrogation, banter and repartee is lots of fun but most evocative is Ferrer's final verbal assault and denudation of Queeg's psyche. The sight of a tired, lonely, neglected and war-beaten Queeg, sitting and twirling his fetish-like metal spheres in his hand to a disturbing clicking sound is memorable and worth the price of your ticket. But it ain't over yet as the masterful Ferrer uses the post-acquittal party to unload on the saved officers---some prima donnas, some passive-aggressive, some not having a clue as to what part of the system failed. Ferrer's drunken exposition and rebuke of MacMurray's character and his final challenge is a CLASSIC and can't be missed. Ferrer is AWESOME. Indeed, Queeg was part of a system [military] where teamwork is essential for success as well as survival. Unfortunately, often leaders are envied, despised and even ostracized by their men and neglected and objectified by a system that frowns upon, and may not be willing to recognize, mental dissolution. Queeg had no one who would listen for the purpose of helping him, but there were many who would listen to excise him. Bogart's performance was terrific---poignant, detached, marvelously underplayed for the stars around him---further cementing his status as an icon of American cinema.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Great storyline and actor ensemble!
Added 7/14/2009
This is a first-class and well-acted movie. The plot is gripping and kind of different from the usual Bogart films. I'm also a big fan of multi-talented Jose Ferrer, and as usual he delivers with a superb acting job.
The picture quality and sound is very good and the 1.85:1 aspect ratio makes it even better.
Bottom line, with all these great actors and Edward Dmytryk as the director, how can anything go wrong?! Buy this one.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The Caine Mutiny
Added 5/9/2009
I bought this movie for a paper I had to write for a psychology class. The movie isn't something I would have watched for personal enjoyment however, the DVD was new and in perfect condition. I received the DVD in 1 day!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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