Amazon.com Essentials:
Humphrey Bogart is heartbreaking as the tragic Captain Queeg
in this 1954 film, based on a novel by Herman Wouk,
about a mutiny aboard a navy ship during World War II. Stripped of his
authority by two officers under his command (played by Van Johnson and
Robert Francis) during a devastating storm, Queeg becomes a crucial
witness at a court martial that reveals as much about the invisible
injuries of war as anything. Edward Dmytryk (Murder My Sweet,
Raintree
County) directs the action scenes with a sure hand and nudges
his all-male cast toward some of the most well-defined characters of
1950s cinema. The courtroom scenes alone have become the basis for a
stage play (and a television movie in 1988), but it is a more
satisfying experience to see the entire story in context. --Tom
Keogh
