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Mister Roberts (1955)
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Overview
User Rating:
Directors:
Writers:
Release Date:
4 December 1955 (Japan)
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Tagline:
All the Uproarious Fun of the Smash Broadway Play! more
Plot:
Comedy-drama about life on a not particularly important ship of the US Navy during WW2. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar.
Another 1 win
&
4 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(7 articles)
Dreamgirls National Tour Opens at Apollo Theater Tonight; Runs Through 12/12
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 22 November 2009, 4:45 AM, PST)
Dreamgirls National Tour Kicks Off at Apollo Theater, 11/7 - 12/6
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 4 November 2009, 1:09 PM, PST)
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 22 November 2009, 4:45 AM, PST)
Dreamgirls National Tour Kicks Off at Apollo Theater, 11/7 - 12/6
(From BroadwayWorld.com. 4 November 2009, 1:09 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Sailing on the Boredom Sea, from tedium to apathy and back
more (59 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Henry Fonda | ... | Lt. JG Douglas A. 'Doug' Roberts |
 | James Cagney | ... | Capt. Morton |
 | William Powell | ... | Lt. 'Doc' |
 | Jack Lemmon | ... | Ens. Frank Thurlowe Pulver |
 | Betsy Palmer | ... | Lt. Ann Girard |
| Ward Bond | ... | Chief Petty Officer Dowdy |
| Philip Carey | ... | Mannion (as Phil Carey) |
| Nick Adams | ... | Reber |
| Perry Lopez | ... | Rodrigues |
| Ken Curtis | ... | Yeoman 3rd Class Dolan |
| Robert Roark | ... | Insigna |
| Harry Carey Jr. | ... | Stefanowski |
| Patrick Wayne | ... | Bookser (as Pat Wayne) |
| Frank Aletter | ... | Gerhart |
 | Tige Andrews | ... | Wiley (as Tiger Andrews) |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
123 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Warnercolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.55 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)
Certification:
Iceland:L |
Canada:PG (Ontario) |
UK:U |
Australia:G |
West Germany:12 (nf) |
Canada:14A (video rating) |
Finland:K-12 |
USA:Approved (certificate #17195)
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
At first the US Navy was not happy that the movie was to be made at all - Capt. Morton (James Cagney) was not the kind of officer the Navy wanted the public to see - and was going to withhold all cooperation with the filmmakers. It took the influence of John Ford, a former Navy captain, on some of his friends at Navy headquarters in Washington to secure the Navy's cooperation.
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Goofs:
Continuity: When Roberts is talking to the sailors inside after his confrontation with the Captain about his letter requesting a transfer, all the sweat stains on his shirt have disappeared.
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Quotes:
Doug Roberts:
Doc, that new hospital hasn't got nurses, has it?
Lt. 'Doc': It didn't have yesterday.
Ensign Pulver: It has today.
Lt. 'Doc': And how did you find out they were there?
Ensign Pulver: It just came to me all of a sudden. I was lying on my bunk this morning, thinking. And there wasn't a breath of air. And all of a sudden, a funny thing happened. A little breeze came up, and I took a big, deep breath, and I said to myself "Pulver, boy, there's women on that island!"
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Lt. 'Doc': It didn't have yesterday.
Ensign Pulver: It has today.
Lt. 'Doc': And how did you find out they were there?
Ensign Pulver: It just came to me all of a sudden. I was lying on my bunk this morning, thinking. And there wasn't a breath of air. And all of a sudden, a funny thing happened. A little breeze came up, and I took a big, deep breath, and I said to myself "Pulver, boy, there's women on that island!"
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Magic Time: A Tribute to Jack Lemmon (2002) (V)
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FAQ
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Through the collaborative efforts of John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, Joshua Logan and Henry Fonda the film version of Mister Roberts finally got made. As in Spartacus a lot of creative differences were aired and there was animosity, but the thing got made and got made well.
The film Mister Roberts is the screen adaption of a play that ran on Broadway from 1948 to 1951 for 1157 performances. It was based on the novel written by Thomas Heggen and was directed by Joshua Logan. It marked a return to the stage for Henry Fonda who for the rest of his life shuttled back and forth between Broadway and Hollywood. Mister Roberts became his career signature part.
According to the book In the Company of Heroes by Harry Carey, Jr., Henry Fonda because this was his signature part, the part that won him a Tony Award on Broadway, he had a certain proprietary interest in seeing a faithful adaption was done for the screen.
John Ford however wanted to put his own individual stamp on the picture as he always does. Fonda and Ford had done six films together before 1948 and Fonda was a willing pupil. But after the acclaim he got for this play Fonda was no longer willing to respond to Ford's direction dutifully. This led to an ugly clash on set and Ford leaving the picture. The direction was taken over by Mervyn LeRoy officially, but Joshua Logan came over from Broadway and in the background Henry Fonda himself directed some of it.
There are certainly enough Ford touches to recognize the film as a Ford product. But Fonda kept the essence of Doug Roberts as the average man doing a disagreeable task, serving as a buffer between the crew and the tyrannical captain. He makes life somewhat bearable for the crew of the cargo ship he's the executive officer. And like James Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life, Fonda also has to be shown just how important his contribution to the morale of that ship is.
And what a boss they have. The role of the Captain is a very difficult part. Though there are certainly elements of comedy with the captain, James Cagney never allows the captain to become a figure of burlesque. It's a very difficult tightrope to walk, but Mr. Cagney brought over 30 years of professionalism to that part. During the scene of the cabin confrontation with Fonda, Cagney does go into his background, going to sea as a kid, doing a lot of menial jobs and rising through his own efforts in the Merchant Marine. We get to understand Cagney, but we never sympathize with him.
Even though Mister Roberts is a military setting, the themes are universal and that is why I think it got the popular acclaim it did. I think most of us in our lives as workers have occasionally had to work in settings where the boss was a tin pot dictator, using and abusing his position of authority. And maybe we've also had immediate supervisors who did buffer between the employer and the workers. I'm sure that applied to just about anyone who ever had any kind of work history.
What allows Cagney to become the little martinet that he's become is the fact that the cargo ship is in the backwater of the war. You do kind of wonder what might happen if the ship was ever a target of some Japanese submarines or airplanes. He and the man are bored, but he's in the position of authority. Mister Roberts is the only film I know that ever made boredom a component of a successful production.
William Powell who was a player for over 40 years on stage and screen put a cap to his career as Doc, the ship's medical officer and confidante of Fonda. John Ford never met a doctor he didn't like and I'm sure that part might have attracted him to the play. From Arrowsmith to Stagecoach to Seven Women, Ford's doctors are all kinds of characters, but they are all wise and offer good counsel on all subjects, not necessarily medical.
And the collaborative efforts of the creators netted for Jack Lemmon his first Oscar as the Best Supporting Actor of 1955. Lemmon is a nice man of admittedly limited character as Ensign Pulver. But his stay on the ship shows a dramatic growth in character as we see in the finale.
The crew is populated by a mostly Ford stock company characters. In fact the only other player besides Fonda from the original Broadway production to repeat his part is Tige Andrews as one of the crew. It's with them that we see the real Ford touches. Note that horse whinny that Ward Bond uses when the visiting nurses led by Betsy Palmer come to the ship at "Captain" Lemmon's request. Bond did the same thing in My Darling Clementine to a passing Linda Darnell.
Despite a difficult birthing, Mister Roberts has become an American classic and will be so as long as we have a planet.