Today’s movie is a war/courtroom drama with a scene that
happens on July 30. Watch this film tonight and enjoy.
THE CAINE MUTINY
Ensign Keith, who comes from a
wealthy family reports to the Caine,
a battle scarred destroyer/minesweeper right out of officer’s school. The
captain has dispensed with the spit and polish, but the crew is in fact first
rate. Keith meets the exec Lt. Maryk and the communications officer Lt. Keefer.
A new captain Philip Queeg takes over. He tries to restore strict discipline.
While berating his officers over a crewman’s appearance, he fails to heed the
helmsman’s warning and the ship circles around and cuts the tow rope of the
target the ship was towing. Instead of taking the blame, Queeg tries to cover
up the incident. The ship gets some strawberry preserves from another ship on
July 30, 1944. [1:04:43 to 1:19:08] When some apparently turn up missing, Queeg
goes to extreme lengths to try and find the thief. Queeg later, instead of
escorting Marines all the way into the landing beach, drops a yellow dye marker
and retreats. Keefer begins trying to convince Maryk to relieve Queeg on the
basis of mental illness. During a typhoon, Maryk suggests sailing into the
waves and taking on ballast, but Queeg thinks the ballast would contaminate the
fuel lines. Maryk thinks Queeg’s inaction could cause the ship to capsize, so
he relieves Queeg, with the support of Keith. Maryk and Keith are charged with
mutiny and Lt. Greenwald serves as their defense counsel. Keefer, by lying under oath avoids any
complicity for what happened and a psychiatrist testifies that Queeg has no
mental illness. However, on cross-examination Queeg breaks down and gives
paranoid testimony. The two officers
are acquitted. Greenwald shows up and blasts all the officers for not
supporting Queeg, wringing an admission out of them that if they had supported
him, Queeg might not have “frozen up” in the typhoon. Greenwald blames Keefer
as being the real instigator of the ‘mutiny’. Keith is assigned to a new ship,
commanded by the prior captain of the Caine.
A
very interesting character study. Keith the young, naïve and easily led type;
Queeg the paranoid type and Keefer, the master manipulator all interact. An
excellent courtroom drama.
Date given in film at 1:04:33
Awards - The film received Oscar
nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Bogart), Best Supporting Actor
(Tully), Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording, Best Film Editing, and Best
Dramatic Score.
Director - Edward Dmytryk
Running Time – 2 hours 4 minutes
Released - June 24,
1954
Starring –
Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg
José Ferrer as Lt. Barney Greenwald
Van Johnson as Lt. Steve Maryk
Fred MacMurray as Lt. Tom Keefer
Robert Francis as Ensign Willie Keith
E. G. Marshall as Lt. Cmder. Challee
Tom Tulley as Lt. Cmdr. William DeVriess
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.
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