Movie Review: The Kidnapping Of The President (1980)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: George Mendeluk  

Starring: William Shatner, Hal Holbrook, Van Johnson, Ava Gardner, Miguel Fernandes  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: South American terrorist Assanti (Miguel Fernandes) emerges from the jungle and lands in Toronto ahead of a visit by US President Adam Scott (Hal Holbrook). Secret Service Agent Jerry O'Connor (William Shatner) senses a threat, but his warnings go unheeded. Assanti makes his move during a public event, forcing Scott into an armored truck rigged with explosives. With Vice President Ethan Richards (Van Johnson) compromised by a corruption scandal and an ambitious wife (Ava Gardner), O'Connor has to negotiate with Assanti and find a way to save the President.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Charles Templeton's book benefits from a decent cast, with William Shatner, Van Johnson, Ava Gardner, and especially Hal Holbrook maintaining interest. They are augmented by Miguel Fernandes, who makes for a sturdy hard-edged villain. The basic premise of holding the President hostage inside a booby-trapped armored truck parked in full public view is innovative. 

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a clunky B-movie with rudimentary production values and an opening sequence in the South American jungle that unleashes unnecessarily jarring violence. Once the kidnapping unfolds, plenty of relatively uneventful time has to be consumed before the frantic climax, exposing bumbling ineptitude by both VP Richards and Agent O'Connor. Critical missing plot points include a crowd meekly acquiescing to stand around near a bomb; and no negotiations about when and how the President will be safe once the terrorist demands are met.

Key Quote:

Assanti (handcuffed to the President, wearing an explosive vest, and holding a detonator): I'm taking this man to that truck!

President Scott: Hell you are!

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Movie Review: Battleground (1949)

A squadron level view of World War Two, Battleground joins a group of soldiers on the messy front lines of a seminal battle.

It's December 1944, and men from the 101st Airborne Division including Holley (Van Johnson), Roderigues (Ricardo Montalban), and Jarvess (John Hodiak) are eagerly anticipating some downtime in Paris. Private Layton (Marshall Thompson) is brand new to the unit, while the older "Pop" (George Murphy) is about to receive a release allowing him to return home.

But instead of getting a break, they are ordered to deploy to the front lines in a hurry: the Germans have mounted a surprise offensive (later known as the Battle of the Bulge), and the American soldiers find themselves defending the strategically important town of Bastogne. Outgunned and outnumbered, they are soon surrounded, but despite taking losses they refuse to yield.

Just four years after the war's end, Battleground provides a gritty ground-level perspective, and a good companion piece to director William A. Wellman's The Story Of G.I. Joe (1945). With the propaganda aspects of the in-war years stripped away and the overconfident and more uniformly stoic cinematic attitude of later post-war years not yet taking hold, writer Robert Pirosh adopts a perceptive tone, embracing realism. 

Hastily dropped into the front lines to plug holes exposed by the German offensive, here the fighting men are even unsure which country they are in (France, Belgium or Luxembourg are the candidates). They lack any oversight of the unfolding strategy, and beyond the immediate command to dig foxholes (and then more foxholes), defend their turf, survive artillery barrages, and scout a patch of forest, they have no idea what is going on or why.

And their humanity shines through. Doubt, fear, and complaints are constant companions, and far outweigh moments of heroism. Fundamental mistakes are made, including allowing Germans disguised as Americans to slip through the lines. Subjected to enemy propaganda leaflets and broadcasts, several men attempt to weasel away from the front lines. Enemy encounters are brief, but the battle against the elements is a constant. Cold and wet terrain drains away physical strength, while the ever-present Ardennes fog saps morale by preventing intervention by the vastly superior Allied air force.

Working with a limited budget and on confined sets, Wellman squeezes the most out of his cast. The first act is slow as the men are rather clumsily introduced then trundle their way to Bastogne and the hospitality of local woman Denise (Denise Darcel). The pace picks up once they deploy to the forest, with Van Johnson's jaunty Holley nominally the lead character. But Marshall Thompson's Layton slowly emerges as the most interesting soldier, learning-by-doing and tracing the arc of America's involvement in the war from hesitancy to leadership.

The men of the 101st who held their ground became known as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne (and it is in Belgium). Battleground is an honest salute to genuine individual behaviour coalescing into group courage.



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Movie Review: Scene Of The Crime (1949)

A cluttered police procedural, Scene Of The Crime offers a decent-enough cast and some noir elements, but fails to build meaningful momentum.

When aging detective Monigan of the Los Angeles police department is shot dead outside an illegal betting joint, his ex-partner Mike Conovan (Van Johnson) investigates, assisted by detectives Gordon (Tom Drake), a rookie, and Piper (John McIntire), a veteran. Although $1,000 in cash was found on Monigan, Mike refuses to believe he was on the take.

Mike leans on informer Sleeper (Norman Lloyd) and uncovers a simmering war for control of the illegal gambling business, with established bookies being killed or intimidated by newcomers. The investigation leads to nightclub chanteuse Lili (Gloria DeHaven), and Mike pretends to romance her to extract information. Mike's obsession with the case and frequent unscheduled absences from home strain his relationship with his wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl).

One of MGM's first forays into the rough and tumble world of detectives and gangsters, Scene Of The Crime is neither boiled enough nor polished enough, and remains stranded in bland territory.  As soon as the murder investigation launches, Charles Schnee's script introduces an avalanche of hoodlums and off-screen characters: Webson, Sleeper, Turk, Blade, Rutzo, Pontiac, Hippo and Lafe have clever names and may or may not be important, but other than Sleeper, they are undefined and interchangeable, rotating in and out of scenes to little effect. Scene Of The Crime quickly sinks under the weight of abstract villainy.

Sub-plots abound, further diminishing the value of the central mystery. Veteran detective Piper is suffering from failing eyesight. Rookie detective Gordon (nicknamed C.C. for carbon copy), is studiously learning the trade. Crime reporter Herkimer (Donald Woods) is Mike's dubious friend and angling for a story.

The marital troubles between Mike and his wife Gloria should have been another simple distraction, and often repeat the same notes. But with the investigation strangled by faceless goons, the couple's personal life injects an interesting dynamic. A tired sophistication hangs in the air as Gloria slowly runs out of patience with her husband's non-presence, hovering ex-lover Norrie (Tom Helmore) offering an alternative and Mike's dalliance with Lili not helping.

Lili should have been the film's most interesting character, but director Roy Rowland appears oblivious to her potential as a mysterious enigma. She simply switches modes at the behest of the script, robbing the plot of what could have been a captivating undercurrent.

Van Johnson is half-convincing as a no-nonsense detective, often struggling to balance his cultured presence with the gritty environment. Like the rest of Scene Of The Crime, he tries hard but never quite clicks.



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Movie Review: A Guy Named Joe (1943)

A romantic fantasy, A Guy Named Joe explores love, commitment, loss, and death during wartime turbulence.

Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy) is a daredevil American bomber pilot stationed in England during World War Two. He maintains a romance with Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne). Although possessive, he never quite commits to her. After Pete and his best buddy Al Yackey (Ward Bond) are reassigned to a Scottish reconnaissance outpost, Dorinda senses Pete's impending demise.

Despite her best efforts to alter destiny, Pete does indeed die heroically while on a mission. In heaven, commanding officer The General (Lionel Barrymore) assigns him to be the guardian angel of rookie pilot Ted Randall (Van Johnson). Pete helps Ted develop into a brash leader, but jealousy bubbles to the surface when Ted meets the still-grieving Dorinda and they start to fall in love.

Combining wistfulness with clever wartime morale-boosting, A Guy Named Joe provides a multi-layered yet cohesively engrossing narrative. Dalton Trumbo's script is consciously lyrical, elevating the premise towards exhortations about the human condition and the nature of death to help make sense of catastrophic losses during a global war. Victor Fleming directs with panache, seamlessly melding the fantasy and romance elements into the pragmatic business of an imperfect war machine at work.

Legacies, carrying on, and letting go are themes underpinning Pete's journey in life and beyond. The influence of the dead on the living is physically represented (but not seen or heard), Fleming and the actors pulling off tricky staging and conscious evasion. For Dorinda, Ted, and Al, living and grieving are uninterrupted, although events, inner thoughts and emotions are occasionally nudged by forces unseen.

But Pete's attachment to Dorinda straddles the divide between his states of being. Helping Ted mature into a confident airman is all fun and games until he falls in love with Dorinda, and now the spectral mentor has to confront his earthly failings. Trumbo presents death as essential for collective progression and a process of individual transition, the departed, just like the living, in need of time and perspective to grasp the enormity of the change.

The cast never wink at the material, allowing the fantasy to take root and enrich the soil. Spencer Tracy sparkles as Pete, thoughtful, self-aware and reckless in life as in death, and on a journey to understand the opportunities, challenges, and audacious passion of loving life without committing to it. Irene Dunne, Ward Bond, and Van Johnson in his breakthrough role surround Pete with romance, friendship and a worthy protégé/rival.

The few scenes of aerial combat were created on the ground with the aid of stock footage and rear projection, and the results are surprisingly decent. But the machines and warfare are ultimately just a good backdrop to a universal story about every Joe's enduring resonance.



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Movie Review: The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

A fantasy, romance and comedy, The Purple Rose Of Cairo is a bittersweet celebration of movies as essential escapism.

The setting is New Jersey during the Great Depression. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) is trying to hold a job as a waitress while stuck with a useless husband in Monk (Danny Aiello). The movies are her one escape from a drudgerous life, and she studiously follows all the Hollywood gossip and watches every movie multiple times.

The latest show at the local theatre is the adventure romance The Purple Rose Of Cairo, featuring exotic foreign settings and swish Manhattan cocktail parties. Cecilia is impressed by charismatic star Gil Shepard (Jeff Daniels) playing the role of adventurer Tom Baxter. During one showing Tom notices Cecilia's dedication and walks off the screen and into the theater, insisting he wants to break free from the confines of his scripted existence and spend time with her instead. The other characters in his movie are left in limbo waiting for Tom to come back.

While Tom and Cecilia enjoy a whirlwind romance, the film's Hollywood producers and the actor Gil panic and descend on New Jersey, with Gil worried the runaway Tom will ruin his burgeoning reputation. Now Gil and Cecilia explore a romance, but Tom remains intent on winning the girl and finding a happy ending.

Writer and director Woody Allen conjures up a funny, romantic and magical story of the loving relationship between movies and their fans. In a compact 82 minutes, The Purple Rose Of Cairo captures all that cinema can represent in providing a bright spark and sometimes the only source of positivity during the worst of times.

Cecilia's marriage is a cycle of abuse and poverty and her menial job is about to crash with her next dropped dish. With the whole country drowning in an economic abyss, hope for a better future is in short supply. The dark movie theatre and films like The Purple Rose Of Cairo take her away from all that, to mysterious Egypt where a group of handsome rich friends meet dishy archeologist Tom Baxter, and they all come back to the bright lights and nightclubs of the big city. 

While all the joviality may as well be on a different planet from Cecilia's corner of New Jersey, the affordable silver screen images offer the perfect break from her misery.

Of course Hollywood needs Cecilia as much as she needs the entertainment, and once Tom steps off the screen and into her world, Allen embarks on a teasing run to outline the symbiotic relationship. Despite the mutual dependence, bridging the divide between fans in search of fantasy and characters in search of reality is no straightforward matter.

Allen cleverly introduces the complication of actor Gil protecting his reputation from his own creation. An unlikely love triangle takes shape, but when one lover is a fictional character and another is a professional actor pursuing stardom, the heartache risk is substantial.

But in the meantime the humour is persistent, most of it drawn from the stranded characters up on the screen, flummoxed by one of their own walking into the real world and with nothing to do except await his return. Meanwhile Tom Baxter knows only what his character knows, and his naive view of the world includes expecting a fade-out after kissing Cecilia.

And in the central role of Cecilia, Mia Farrow is elegantly soulful, carrying the weight of a depressed nation on her slender shoulders. Farrow sells the film's wild premise with ease, mixing incredulous fun with starstruck fandom while Cecilia's struggle in a grim and inescapable real world casts a long shadow.

Jeff Daniels is engaging in a dual role as an actor and his character. The supporting cast includes Van Johnson as one of the frustrated on-screen co-stars, and Dianne Wiest as a local tart who gets to teach the clueless Tom about brothels.

The Purple Rose Of Cairo is a mischievous love letter to a flicker of light connecting reality with fantasy, sustaining dreams through the darkness.

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Movie Review: Too Young To Kiss (1951)

An adult-roleplaying-as-a-child romantic comedy, Too Young To Kiss features an edgy June Allyson performance but also veers close to plenty of icky behaviour.

In New York City, Eric Wainwright (Van Johnson) is a womanizing and successful talent promoter besieged by wannabe performers. Cynthia Potter (Allyson) is a frustrated aspiring concert pianist, refusing to give up on her dream but unable to get Wainwright's attention. Her boyfriend John (Gig Young), a newspaperman, urges her to quit, but instead Cynthia gatecrashes a children's audition evening by pretending to be 12 year old Molly, Cynthia's younger sister.

Wainwright is stunned by Molly's precocious talent, and Cynthia cannot bring herself to tell him the truth. Eric books a high-profile concert for Molly and takes over the girl's life, parking her at his country estate and helping her practice to be a success. Cynthia is bitter that Eric thinks the world of Molly but cannot appreciate Cynthia, and proceeds to try and make his life a living hell.

Similar to other woman-having-to-pretend to-be-a-girl efforts from the era such as The Major And The Minor, Too Young Kiss is both more disconcerting and more fractious than the typical rom-com. Whether intentional or not, the film carries a welcome undertone of anger, with June Allyson's Cynthia seething for long stretches at the injustice of an entertainment world where her talent is celebrated as a child and ignored as an adult. Her revenge is to poke away at Eric's comfortable life as a Svengali.

Director Robert Z. Leonard, again perhaps inadvertently, steers towards uncomfortable territory in portraying Eric's dominating behaviour towards Molly. He is frequently leading her by the arm, approaching her too close, tucking her too tight, his actions bordering on a version of kidnapping and culminating in a spanking episode. Cynthia-as-Molly displays her disgust and annoyance, and pushes back with vexatious actions of her own, giving the film a pointy stance.

But this is ultimately a romantic comedy, and inevitably all obstacles and misunderstandings shall be overcome in order for the happy couple to find each other. This being the fourth of five teamings between Allyson and Johnson, their fans expected nothing else, and the script finds its way towards an awkward climax to unite them.

Along the way there are plenty of piano interludes, and Allyson is game in pounding away at the keyboards, never quite in synch with the advanced music. She was 33 at the time of filming, playing a 22 year old character impersonating a 12 year old girl. Her performance as Molly is more than passable, while Johnson stays within himself as suave and confident romantic interest. Gig Young is the unfortunate other man, getting regularly punched for his troubles.

Too Young To Kiss raises issues about the nature of talent, the treatment of women and twists of career fortune. The film may have been intended a flighty teaming of a popular screen couple, but it contains more talking points than expected.

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Movie Review: The Bride Goes Wild (1948)

An unbalanced romantic comedy, The Bride Goes Wild has no idea what it is trying to be and collapses in an inept heap.

Prim and proper schoolteacher Martha Terryton (June Allyson) wins a competition to be the illustrator for the latest children's book by celebrated author "Uncle Bumps", the pen name of Greg Rawlings (Van Johnson). Publisher McGrath (Hume Cronyn) knows that contrary to his reputation, Greg is a womanizing borderline alcoholic, still recovering from a long-ago failed relationship with Tillie (Arlene Dahl).

When Greg clumsily attempts to seduce Martha and plies her with alcohol, McGrath fears a scandal, and concocts a plot to elicit sympathy for Greg by creating a fake sob-story about the author as a single dad raising an unruly child. Young freckled kid Danny (Butch Jenkins) is plucked from an orphanage and asked to play the role of Greg's out-of-control son. Martha starts to fall for Greg, but the reappearance of Tillie complicates matters.

The film is as unstable as the synopsis suggests. The third teaming of Allyson and Johnson is devoid of charisma and chemistry, and frequently veers into obnoxious territory. The character of Greg Rawlings is a singularly irritating predator, and somehow writer Albert Beich doubles down on the loathsome behaviour by contriving the ludicrous introduction of the shin-kicking Danny.

Other than perpetuating the mythology that every bad man just needs a good woman to achieve a remarkable reformation, why a wholesome schoolteacher like Martha would ever fall for a lech like Greg is only explained in the minds of Beich and director Norman Taurog. Matters are made worse when Tillie reappears, clearly a better match for Greg, but yet somehow the romance between Greg and Martha has to blossom among the thorny weeds of bad behaviour.

The Bride Goes Wild (the title has nothing to do with the events in the film) ends with ants overrunning a wedding and then stunningly awful and prolonged scenes of hordes of kids pretending to be Indians. Almost bad enough to be good due to the utter lack of cohesion, the film just settles for a putrid type of awful.

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The Movies Of Van Johnson

All movies starring Van Johnson and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Madame Curie (1943)

A Guy Named Joe (1943)

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

The Bride Goes Wild (1948)

Scene Of The Crime (1949)

Battleground (1949)

Too Young To Kiss (1951)

The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

The Kidnapping Of The President (1980)

The Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)

A romantic drama, The Last Time I Saw Paris is a passionate tale of flawed soulmates struggling against life's challenges. The loose adaptation of an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story is filled with the hard consequences of reality failing to live up to unattainable idealism.

Paris has just been liberated by Allied troops. In the ensuing wild celebrations, Charles Wills (Van Johnson), a reporter for a US military journal, meets the spirited Helen Ellswirth (Elizabeth Taylor), and they are immediately infatuated with each other. Although the grounded Charles and the wildly unpredictable Helen could not be any different, they fall in love and get married. Helen takes after her father James (Walter Pidgeon), a fun-loving, larger than life man who lives beyond his means. Her sister Marion (Donna Reed) is much more disciplined, but also jealous of Helen's carefree attitude to life and love.

Forced to live within relatively limited means, Helen and Charles try to settle into a life of unsatisfying domesticity in Paris, and daughter Vicki joins the family, while Marion marries the steady Claude (George Dolenz). Charles struggles to establish himself as an author and starts drinking heavily, while Helen finds ways to remain a source of embarrassment for her husband. With the marriage seemingly growing stale, both face severe tests of fidelity, Charles with socialite Lorraine (Eva Gabor) and Helen with suave tennis player Paul (Roger Moore, in one of his earliest notable roles).

The Last Time I Saw Paris is a grand love story, inspired by Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited. Meeting fortuitously in the chaos of Parisian streets overflowing with revellers celebrating liberation, Helen and Charles were meant for each other. But in a case of love alone not being enough, both are reaching for something unattainable: Helen for wealth and the perceived richness of an always exciting life, and Charles for success as a respected author. They both allow their dreams of what cannot be get in the way of what is, and the resultant struggles will strain their love to its limits.

The film is limited by the scope of the two main characters, and they are both more flawed than flourishing. Once the fundamental boundaries of Helen and Charles are defined, she playful, ambitious, and hopelessly flirty, he earnest, reliable but with a weakness for drink, the narrative of their life is confined into a sharp-edged box. Neither will rise above their standing to give the movie a lift, and both in fact yield to the worst excesses of their failings. The film follows along, a chronicle of two people having a go at happiness but confronted by foibles of their own making.

Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson bring a pleasing surplus of vitality to their roles. Taylor lets her inner fire burn bright, Helen never surrendering to the realities of life in her pursuit of fun, but giving her man every chance to keep up with her game of frolicking grown-ups. Johnson succeeds in allowing Charles' lurking demons to gradually emerge and dominate, his lack of success as a writer and inability to match Helen's lust for life driving him to the bottle. With one or both on the screen for almost the entire length of the film, Taylor and Johnson ensure The Last Time I Saw Paris is never less than engaging. Walter Pigeon nails the congeniality of Helen's dad, full of optimism, joie de vivre and love of the good things, affordable or not. He is the tree from where she fell, and she landed quite close to the trunk.

Director Richard Brooks co-wrote the screenplay with Julius and Philip Epstein, and infuses the early parts of the movie with a jubilant yet poignant post-occupation Paris vibe. For a narrative driven almost entirely by the thoughts and conversations of two people, Brooks then does well to find dynamism in a variety of settings, including corner cafes, grand banquets, fancy restaurants and lush parks.

Paris delivers on its promise as the city of love, but after the flame of passion is initially lit, not even Paris can guarantee a trouble-free ride.

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Movie Review: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

An earnest retelling of the Doolittle raid, America's first post Pearl Harbour retaliation against mainland Japan, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo succeeds by placing the people and the mission ahead of the machinery and the bombs.

It's early in 1942, and Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) is tasked with conceiving and executing a daring bombing raid against targets in Japan. The objectives are to puncture the Japanese perception of invulnerability, and to draw Japanese resources back from the front lines to defend their homeland. A volunteer force of B-25 bomber crews is assembled for training, and they are simply told that the mission is exceedingly dangerous and completely secret.

Among the volunteers are Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson), whose crew includes Cpl. David Thatcher (Robert Walker), while Lt. Bob Gray (Robert Mitchum) leads the crew of another bomber. Lawson is newly married to Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter), who is now pregnant. In total, more than a dozen bomber crews are assembled for ten weeks of training, including learning to execute hazardous short take-offs to simulate operations on an aircraft carrier. With training complete, the bombers are deployed on-board the USS Hornet, and ultimately execute a scrambly mission, successfully bombing their targets but running out of fuel. Lawson ditches off the coast of Japanese-occupied China, and discovers that the really difficult part of his mission is about to start.

Based on Lawson's book of the same name, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo adopts a factual, almost documentary approach, with an emphasis on crew camaraderie and a good taste for the mechanics of the mission, always keeping the lives and spirits of the men at the centre of the drama.

The training and preparations for the raid, and the subsequent deployment on the Hornet, are treated with little glory and plenty of hard graft. Dalton Trumbo's script goes into some impressive details when needed, and the scenes of training for short take-offs, the B-25 pushed to do things it was not necessarily designed for, emphasize the inventiveness needed to gain an advantage in battle. The mixing of army airmen with navy personnel on-board the aircraft carrier is presented with a sense of authenticity as a source of potential tension.

Lawson's relationship with his wife Ellen is provided with plenty of room to breathe and grow. Ellen is the airman's connection to the real world, representing both the home front and a compelling reason to come back alive. Van Johnson and Phyllis Thaxter portray a genuine and tender love, Thaxter compelling as the girl next door, standing fully behind her man and emotionally supporting him with surprising fortitude.

Spencer Tracy's performance as James Doolittle stretches a bit beyond a cameo, but not by much. He is perhaps on the screen for about 10 of the 138 minutes, but leaves a lasting impression as he drops in on the men to introduce every new phase of training and re-emphasize the dangers of the mission.

Director Mervyn LeRoy allows the story to unfold through Johnson's steady performance, the photography alternating between capturing grand scenes (including original newsreel footage) of impressive war machinery and the essence of men dealing with the growing tension of a looming mission filled with unknown dangers.

The final third of the Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo deals with the unexpected post-raid adversity faced by Lawson and his crew after ditching off the coast of China. The post-script to the mission proved to be the most challenging phase, and an apt metaphor for war: it's what happens when the shooting stops that really determines the difference between real success and abject failure.

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Movie Review: The Caine Mutiny (1954)

A study of military men cracking under stress, The Caine Mutiny is a tension-filled character-driven drama on the high seas of World War Two. Humphrey Bogart is excellent in an against-type role as a cowardly captain, a disciplinarian who never gains the respect of his men.

World War Two is raging , and Ensign Willie Keith (Robert Francis) graduates from the naval academy and is assigned to serve on the Caine, a rust-bucket of a minesweeper. Under the command of Captain DeVriess (Tom Tully), the Caine is a loosely run ship, with flagrant disregard for most rules and regulations. Lieutenant Maryk (Van Johnson) is second in command, and the easy-going Lieutenant Keefer (Fred MacMurray) is among the group of senior officers, but he is more interested in writing his book rather than acting as an officer.

As Keith learns about life on a military boat by making mistakes, DeVriess is relieved of command, and replaced by Captain Queeg (Bogart), who immediately sets about instilling discipline and alienating the officers and crew. Queeg's obsession with minute details while ignoring more important matters borders on irresponsible, and behind his back, Keefer starts to call him paranoid. The rest of the officers label Queeg a coward when he refuses to take responsibility for his mistakes and appears to flee a combat engagement. With Keefer's encouragement, Maryk starts to consider whether he should relieve Queeg of command, a situation that comes to a head during a wild typhoon.

Based on Herman Wouk's novel, The Caine Mutiny boasts a powerful cast delivering accomplished performances. In addition to Bogart, Johnson and MacMurray as the three strong personalities on board the Caine, Jose Ferrer makes a strong impression in the final third as Lieutenant Greenwald, the lawyer assigned to argue the mutiny case at a military court martial. Also in the cast is May Wynn (playing a character called May Wynn), Keith's love interest in an example of a sputtering but watchable romance injected into an otherwise male-dominated film. Even minor roles, such as Keith's mother (Katherine Warren), E. G. Marshall as the other court martial lawyer, and the scuzzy crew members (including Lee Marvin) are lively.

The story is told through Keith's eyes. In between interludes where he and May try to decide if they belong with each other, Keith gets to experience the extremes of DeVriess and Queeg, and is finally swept up in the events of the mutiny. Robert Francis delivers an earnest performance, a man trying hard to make a good impression but learning most by stumbling into unexpected missteps. Francis' promising career tragically ended when he died in a small plane crash in 1955, at age 25.

In a relatively small but pivotal role, and only 18 months away from his own demise, Humphrey Bogart is dominant. Bogart sheds his cool, confident persona to portray Queeg as a man damaged by too much combat, focusing on all the wrong things as his world begins to fall apart. Bogart delivers a couple of his all-time career best scenes in The Caine Mutiny, first asking the officers with great humility to help him create a better team, and then in the witness chair trying to hold himself together to testify at the court martial. There is fear, hesitancy, and internal conflict etched on Queeg's face throughout the movie, and Bogart deservedly was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award.

Beyond Queeg, The Caine Mutiny shines as a study of three other intriguing men, director Edward Dmytryk admirably focusing his movie on the labyrinthine motivations of the officers. Keefer is the classic agent provocateur, insidiously influencing events while avoiding responsibility, traits that he maintains from on-board the Caine to the court martial. MacMurray makes Keefer smooth and dangerously likable, a man who will slither up with a seemingly innocent opinion that will only get others in trouble. Johnson gets a more straightforward role as Maryk, an honest man genuinely wanting to demonstrate loyalty, but troubled by what he sees from Queeg and prodded by what he hears from Keefer.

And late in the film Jose Ferrer brings to life the complex lawyer Greenwald, reluctantly accepting his assignment, executing brilliantly, helping the judges reach the right conclusion, and then delivering his own devastating verdict on the men of the Caine. Greenwald gets to the root of the mutiny, one clear-headed man delving into the true causes of a nasty incident that was triggered long before the typhoon struck the Caine. While it may be easy to identify paranoia in one man, it's more troublesome to reveal gradually building ill-will in the hearts of the seemingly healthy.

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