The Caine Mutiny is military drama, I guess, starring Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Fred MacMurray, Van Johnson, Robert Francis, May Wynn, and Tom Tully.
It's the jaunty days of WWII, and Willie Keith (Francis) has just left his life of wealth and opulence for the Navy. He gets assigned to the USS Caine, a minesweeper ship that has, to put it lightly, seen better days. The captain, DeVriess (Tully) is somewhat checked out, pretty lackadaisical about discipline and hygiene amongst the men. The lieutenant, Keefer (MacMurray) spends most of his time badmouthing the ship and writing a novel, and the other lieutenant, Maryk (Johnson) does his job well enough, but is a bit slow. And then DeVriess gets replaced with Queeg (Bogart), a much more disciplined and by-the-book captain. Keith is thrilled at first by the notion that Queeg might whip the men into shape, but that doesn't last long.
See, Queeg is identified in the movie as "paranoid," but what he is, is a narcissist and an asshole. He freaks out over men not tucking their shirts in, ignores or shouts down his subordinates, and then blames them when he fucks up. When a quart of strawberries goes missing, he goes bananas and fixates on the idea that someone must have made a duplicate key to the kitchen, since something similar happened to him on a previous ship and he can't imagine any other explanation. He also cuts and runs prematurely when escorting landing boats in for an invasion, prompting his crew to start referring to him as "ol' Yellowstain."
Keefer points out to Maryk and Keith that under the Constitution of Boaty-time (I may be misremembering the title), if a captain is incapacitated by illness, mental or otherwise, another officer can take command. Maryk is all set to present his "Queeg is nuts" log to the admiral, but Keefer talks him out of it last-minute. And then a typhoon hits, the ship is in real danger of sinking, and Queeg just keeps ordering them to stay on course, even though that's suicide. Maryk takes command and of course he and Keith both get court martial'd for their trouble, and their lawyer, one Barney Greenwald (Ferrer) manages to get the charges dismissed after he puts Queeg on the stand and lets him talk.
All of which is well and good. Like, this is a really good movie - it was nominated for a bunch of Oscars, and Bogey, in particular, is fantastic in the role. Thing I take issue with is Greenwald, showing up drunk to the congratulation party for Maryk, and saying "yeah, well, if you guys had been a little more loyal, then Queeg wouldn't have gone crazy and nearly killed you!"
And the reason I take issue with that is because when you listen to Queeg talk, he talks just like Trump. No, really. He disparages everyone under him as "disloyal" and incompetent. Nothing is his fault - it couldn't be his fault, he's great at everything. There's a conspiracy to hurt him, that's why it looks bad that he [did the thing], and he didn't really do the thing anyway. That kind of personality isn't improved by loyalty, because nothing is ever loyal enough.
Now, is this me applying modern-day events to an interpretation of a movie released in 1955? Yes. Do I care? Not in the slightest.
(Oh, there's a whole subplot about Keith and his girlfriend May Wynn, who is played by May Wynn, but it's the least interesting thing about the movie so I kinda forgot about it.)
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: She's the Man
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