Herman Wouk’s 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny is a fascinating drill-down into the complex nature of The US Navy, and what it means to lead. The book details life on The USS Caine, a minesweeper in The Pacific under the command of the blustery, rules-focused, paranoiac Lieutenant Commander Queeg, whose moments of weakness and indecision during a freak storm event belie his impressive history of service and ultimately see him deposed by several of his officers, led by the ship’s executive officer Stephen Maryk, but largely informed by the duplicitous, self-serving, keenly intelligent junior officer and aspiring author Thomas Keefer. Filled with high drama, rich characters and complex emotion, The Caine Mutiny is a gripping and provocative read, and won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Herman Wouk’s original book
Interestingly, Herman Wouk (famed for historical novels like The Winds Of War and War And Remembrance) followed up The Caine Mutiny a few years later with the stage play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which focused solely on the court-martial trial that formed the latter part of the book. The play was first presented by Paul Gregory at The Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, California, on October 13, 1953, and then toured across the United States before being given its first performance on Broadway at The Plymouth Theatre on January 20, 1954 in a production directed by the renowned actor (and famed one-and-done director of The Night Of The Hunter) Charles Laughton and produced by Paul Gregory. The play has been staged many, many times since (notably by actor Charlton Heston, who directed and starred as Queeg in a 1984 version), and first appeared on screen with a live television production in 1955 for the anthology series Ford Star Jubilee. This version featured Lloyd Nolan and Robert Gist as Queeg and Keefer (both had played the roles on stage), Frank Lovejoy as Lt. Maryk and Barry Sullivan as lawyer Barney Greenwald, who defends Maryk at his court-martial trial) and Frank Lovejoy.
A scene from 1954’s The Caine Mutiny
This was notably preceded by 1954’s The Caine Mutiny, in which director Edward Dmytryk (famed for being one of The Hollywood Ten) expertly adapted Herman Wouk’s novel for the big screen. After a failed attempt by Wouk himself, screenwriter Stanley Roberts was brought in to adapt the novel, and had much trouble trimming it down to cinematic size. By far the most famous of all the adaptations, Dmytryk’s stellar film is perfectly and ingeniously cast, with a wonderfully against-type Humphrey Bogart dominating the film as Lieutenant Commander Queeg, a complex military leader plagued by demons whose own demands for order mask a deep well of indecision. A far more sympathetic figure in the film than the madman of the book, Queeg is portrayed by Dmytryk as the victim of “battle fatigue” or what would now be termed PTSD. Van Johnson is excellent as the easily led Stephen Maryk, while Fred MacMurray obviously relishes his turn as Thomas Keefer, the man pulling the strings. The ever-stylish and composed Jose Ferrer, meanwhile, is also perfectly cast as keenly intelligent and knowing Barney Greenwald, who defends Maryk, but also has a deep well of respect for long-serving US Navy man Queeg, who he has to obliterate on the witness stand in order to give his client a decent shot at acquittal. A noted and deserved classic, The Caine Mutiny is a key work of the 1950s, and an enduring pop cultural artefact, referenced and quoted for decades after its release.
Robert Altman with Brad Davis on the set of 1988’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Though The Caine Mutiny and Humphrey Bogart’s performance are seen as indelible, legendary director Robert Altman (Nashville, The Player, M*A*S*H, and many, many more classics) returned to the material in 1988 with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, a straight adaptation of Herman Wouk’s stage play. Though beloved for his big, kaleidoscopic films filled with multiple characters and overlapping dialogue, the late, great Robert Altman was also a noted (if somewhat under-loved) master at adapting theatre for the big screen, with works such as Streamers, Fool For Love, Come Back To The Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and Secret Honor. Working directly from Wouk’s play, Altman crafts something truly compelling here. Through simple camera work and pitch-perfect casting (Eric Bogosian is wonderfully fiery as Barney Greenwald, Jeff Daniels is perfectly weak-willed as Maryk, Peter Gallagher is impassioned and eloquent as John Challee, Kevin J. O’Connor is suitably odious as Tom Keefer, and the late Brad Davis unravels majestically on the witness stand as a particularly messy Philip Francis Queeg), Robert Altman works his magic on this meaty material.
Kiefer Sutherland with William Friedkin on the set of 2023’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
A contemporary of Robert Altman’s – and also an under-celebrated adaptor of stage plays for the screen – the great William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live And Die In LA and many more) ended his career with his own adaptation of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in 2023, which he completed just before his passing at the age of 87. Just as Altman invigorated and enlivened the very stagey material through performance and subtle camera work, so too does Friedkin, snaking his way expertly through the mind-games of the courtroom and getting superb performances out of a very well-chosen cast. Kiefer Sutherland is all bluster, frustration and jittery menace as Lieutenant Commander Queeg, while also tapping the inner sadness of this not so villainous villain. Jason Clarke is perfectly dry and low-key as lawyer Barney Greenwald, while Maryk (the excellent Jake Lacy) and Keefer (the insufferably unctuous Lewis Pullman) are less sympathetic than ever. Tellingly and appropriately for the times, the character of prosecuting naval lawyer Challee has been gender-swapped, with the excellently impassioned Monica Raymund perfect for the role.
A truly compelling tale, The Caine Mutiny is one of so much depth and continued interest that its fascination fails to wane, even over three exemplary screen adaptations…
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is streaming now. Click here for our review.
