Edward Dmytryk
1954
This naval drama, complete with courtroom finale, seems to have paved the road for "A Few Good Men" (1992). Seen through the eyes of corn-pone all American Robert Francis, the good ship Caine is a rustbucket mine-sweeper, lose on naval decorum and high on mediocre complacency. All that changes when Commander Humphrey Bogart takes charge: soon sloppy shirt-tails and crooked hats don't look so bad in light of the Captain's compulsive obsession with keeping things "by the book," a cover for his dangerous predilection for incompetent leadership. You've seen Bogey as the bad guy, tough guy, and hero, but this depiction of a mentally unsound individual crushed by responsibility is unique in it's pathetic pathos. Like Francis, the cast sports a few other dull honkies, but Shaggy-Dog Fred MacMurray adds a little color with his monotone cynicism, and it's always a pleasure to watch Lee Marvin no matter how small the role. Jose Ferrer's drunken belligerence after the bittersweet verdict is a treat in and of itself, but the reasoning behind his anger and logic seem terribly misplaced - a grand gesture that the script could not back up. It would have been much more satisfying to seem him take it outside with MacMurray in a cathartic show of fisticuffs.
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