July 30 - The Caine Mutiny

Today’s movie is a courtroom drama with a scene that happens on July 30. Watch it 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

Producer - Stanley Kramer

Director - Edward Dmytryk

Screenplay - Stanley Roberts

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 .

Running Time - 2 hours 4 minutes

Released - June 24, 1954

Starring -         

Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg

José Ferrer as Lieutenant Barney Greenwald

Van Johnson as Lieutenant Steve Maryk

Fred MacMurray as Lieutenant Tom Keefer

Robert Francis as Ensign (later Lieutenant, junior grade)
Willis Seward "Willie" Keith

May Wynn as May Wynn

Tom Tully as Lieutenant Commander (later Commander) William H. DeVriess

E. G. Marshall as Lieutenant Commander (John) Challee

Arthur Franz as Lieutenant, junior grade, H. Paynter Jr.

Lee Marvin as "Meatball" (Dlugatch)

Warner Anderson as Captain Blakely

Claude Akins as "Horrible" (Everett Black)

Katherine Warren as Mrs. Keith

Jerry Paris as Ensign Barney Harding

Whit Bissell as Navy psychiatrist Lieutenant Commander Dickson

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.