#The caine mutiny trial

#The caine mutiny trial

The trial scene is of course classic, and it’s always a pleasure to see several of Hollywood’s finest actors really performing their hearts out while chewing up a little scenery on the side. Upon returning to port, Maryk is arrested, and a court-martial for mutiny is ordered. When Queeg seems incapable of responding, Maryk relieves him of his duty. During a violent typhoon, the executive officer, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk, played by Van Johnson, pleads with the captain to take emergency action to save the ship. Queeg at first tries to instill some much needed order and discipline to the Caine, but his commands become more and more eccentric and his behavior more erratic. In one of his last major roles, Bogart plays Lieutenant Commander Phillip Queeg, a veteran Navy captain assigned to a destroyer just as it’s about to head out to sea. Filming took place in naval bases at Pearl Harbor and San Francisco, as well as in Hollywood.

But the idea of “mutiny” and the movies proved too much at first for the US Navy, and they balked at cooperating only after the studio agreed to put a title card proclaiming that “there has never been a mutiny in the US Navy” did they agree to cooperate-otherwise, there’s no way this could have made it to the screen.

The film was based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, which itself was loosely based on an actual World War II incident that had already been adapted into a successful Broadway play under the same title. This week’s classic is The Caine Mutiny, from 1954, starring Van Johnson, Fred McMurray, José Ferrer, and Humphrey Bogart. The Caine Mutiny (1954) REEL 13 CLASSIC | THE CAINE MUTINY