MISTER ROBERTS Movie Review

1955 John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, Josh Logan

One of the most successful World War II comedy-dramas had a rough road from stage to screen. Writer Frank Nugent and Joshua Logan had adapted Nugent's novel into a hit play with Henry Fonda in the lead, both on Broadway and with the road company. When Warner Bros. decided to turn it into a film, the producers hired John Ford to direct and considered more bankable stars like William Holden and Marlon Brando in the title role. Ford lobbied for his old friend Fonda, but from the first day of filming, the two men had serious disagreements about the nature of the film.

Ford wanted to make a brawling, raucous slapstick ensemble piece. Fonda wanted to keep his version of the character at the center of the story. At their lowest moment, they argued and Ford actually struck Fonda. The various people involved with the conflict tell slightly different versions, but it's clear that Ford was drinking heavily at the time and his health was deteriorating. Several weeks into shooting, he had to be hospitalized and he was replaced by veteran Mervyn Leroy. The difference between their work is immediately obvious.

Ford filmed the exteriors in the South Pacific. His “big” scenes are the crew's ogling newly-arrived nurses, and the men's drunken return from a wild night of liberty. Leroy shot the interiors, most of them dialogue-driven, involving the four stars. After Leroy's work had been completed, the studio brought in Joshua Logan to shoot two more scenes, the famous soap-suds and the closing confrontation. Not surprisingly then, the film is a mixed bag, but mostly an enjoyable one.

The setting is the cargo ship Reluctant, far from the action in the waning days of the Pacific campaign. Lt. Doug Roberts (Fonda) desperately wants to get into the “real war” before it's over. The Captain (James Cagney), an ambitious, petty man, understands that Roberts's efficient management of the crew is his own ticket to a promotion to Commander, and so he refuses to approve Roberts's repeated requests for transfer. Doc (William Powell) sympathizes but cannot help. The manic ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon) plots elaborate pranks, but is too terrified of the Captain to follow through.

Ford's scenes have a dated quality. They are certainly lively and well staged, but changing tastes in humor have given them an exaggerated, forced jollity. They're not nearly as funny as they're trying to be. Ford, however, was also responsible for the “mail call” sequence, and that is the film's emotional highpoint. Leroy's scenes are built around Fonda's confident performance, and they seem absolutely right. Newcomer Lemmon received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for a performance that is somehow reminiscent of Daffy Duck. In less showy roles, his two senior co-stars are terrific. Cagney's Captain is a cagey piece of work, while Powell's Doc has a cool world-weary skepticism.

Those four characters are what people remember about the film, and they have made it a perennial favorite on video. If only the filmmakers had been allowed to leave in the line that scandalized Broadway audiences and was considered much too racy for the movies in the mid 1950s. As Fonda retells it in his autobiography, when Pulver is talking about making an elaborate firecracker out of fulminate of mercury, Roberts says to Doc, “That stuff's murder. Do you suppose he'll use it.”

Doc responds, “Of course not. Where would he get fulminate of mercury?”

“I dunno,” Roberts answers. “He's pretty resourceful. Eighteen months at sea without liberty, where'd he get the clap?”

Cast: Henry Fonda (Lt. (jg) Douglas Roberts), James Cagney (Capt. Morion), Jack Lemmon (Ens. Frank Pulver), William Powell (Doc), Betsy Palmer (Lt. Ann Girard), Ward Bond (CPO Dawdy), Harry Carey Jr. (Stefanowski), Nick Adams (Reber), Phil Carey (Mannion), Ken Curtis (Dolan), Martin Milner (Shore Patrol officer), Jack Pennick (Marine sergeant), Perry Lopez (Rodrigues), Patrick Wayne (Bookser), Tige Andrews (Wiley), William Henry (Lt. Billings); Written by: Frank Nugent, Joshua Logan, Thomas Heggen; Cinematography by: Winton C. Hoch; Music by: Franz Waxman; Technical Advisor: Cmdr. Merle McBain, Adm. John Dale Price. Producer: Leland Hayward, Warner Bros. Awards: Academy Awards '55: Best Supporting Actor (Lemmon); Nominations: Academy Awards '55: Best Picture, Best Sound. Running Time: 120 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.