The Caine Mutiny

The Caine Mutiny (1954) starring Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray

The Caine Mutiny is one of those movies where several elements work together to make an incredible film.   The acting is top-notch, with all of the actors at their peak.   Humphrey Bogart is believable, despicable, and, in the end, pitiable as the obsessive, controlling, paranoid Captain Queeq.   Van Johnson is utterly believable as the loyal, upright, by-the-book officer.   Fred MacMurray is absolutely unrecognizable, and I mean that in the best way possible.   He is not the loving, gentle patriarch of My Three Sons. Neither the likable father figure of various Walt Disney movies.  He is Iago, a little man who manipulates others into doing what he himself is unable and unwilling to do.   Jose Ferrer shines as the defense attorney in the court-martial.

Court martial?   Yes, the eager beaver young officer played by Van Johnson is manipulated slowly. Coaxed into taking control of the ship from the obsessed Captain Queeq, in order to save the ship. Queeg’s played to the hilt by Humphrey Bogart in what might be his finest acting.   Queeq responds by charging him with mutiny, and it’s in the courtroom that everything comes to a head.   It’s incredible acting wrapped around an incredible story — of the mutiny that never happened.

Product Description of The Caine Mutinty

This is a classic film of modern day mutiny aboard a Naval vessel based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Herman Wouk. The nervous and inept behavior of Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) during maneuvers aboard the U.S.S. Caine a destroyer/mine sweeper attracts the attention of the ship’s crew members and it’s executive officer, Maryk (Van Johnson). When Queeg’s neurotic behavior reaches a breaking point during a fierce typhoon, Maryk takes command of the ship. Queeg then retaliates by having Maryk court-martialed. In a tense courtroom sequence, Lt. Greenwald (Jose Ferrer), assigned to Maryk’s defense, systematically breaks Queeg down on the stand. Maryk wins the case but the victory is short-lived as Lt. Greenwald reveals that the men have all been the unwitting victims of a deceptive shipmate named Lt. Keefer (Fred MacMurray), who actually instigated the mutiny for his own purposes. An all-star cast makes this film one to remember.

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Cast of characters

• Humphrey Bogart (All Through the Night, Sabrina) … Lt. Cmdr. Philip Francis Queeg
• José Ferrer (The Greatest Story Ever Told, Cyrano de Bergerac) … Lt. Barney Greenwald
• Van Johnson (Two Girls and a Sailor, In the Good Old Summertime) … Lt. Steve Maryk
• Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity, The Apartment) … Lt. Tom Keefer
• Robert Francis … Ens. Willie Keith
• May Wynn … May Wynn
• Tom Tully (Killer McCoy, Destination Tokyo) … Comdr. DeVriess
• E.G. Marshall (The Silver Chalice) … Lt. Comdr. Challee
• Arthur Franz (Monster on the Campus, Hellcats of the Navy) … Lt. JG H. Paynter Jr.
• Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou, The Dirty Dozen) … Meatball
• Warner Anderson (Destination Moon) … Capt. Blakely
• Claude Akins (Rio Bravo, Battle for the Planet of the Apes) … Seaman Lugatch aka ‘Horrible’
• Katherine Warren … Mrs. Keith
• Jerry Paris (The Dick Van Dyke Show) … Ens. Barney Harding
• Steve Brodie (Donovan’s Brain, The Giant Spider Invasion) … Chief Budge

Additional cast

• Herbert Anderson (The Yellow Cab Man, Excuse My Dust) … Ens. Rabbit
• James Best (The Killer Shrews, Three on a Couch) … Lt. JG Jorgensen
• Whit Bissell (The Atomic Kid, I Was a Teenage Werewolf) … Lt. Comdr. Dickson M.D.