From Warner Bros.
Directed by John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy
Starring
Henry Fonda
James Cagney
William Powell
Jack Lemmon
Betsy Palmer
Ward Bond
Phil Carey
Nick Adams
Ken Curtis
Perry Lopez
Harry Carey Jr.
Patrick Wayne
As a kid seeing this for the first time I was giddy over watching a drunken sailor ride a motorcycle off the end of a pier. Having watched it again a few days ago, I must admit that I still laughed like a kid. But as anyone knows who has seen it, Mister Roberts is so much more than the many out-loud laughs that are served up. It is a most thoughtful movie, ripe with lessons on dignity, decency and kindness. How we can use some of that right now.
Venerable producer Leland Hayward produced both the film and the Broadway play on which it is based. The play, which won a Tony, as did Henry Fonda, its star, was written by Thomas Heggen, (assisted by Josh Logan, who also directed) who based it on his exploits on a cargo ship in the Pacific in the last months of WWII.
John Ford, a proud, former navy man, took a break from his westerns to make the movie and he immediately hired his usual screenwriter, Frank Nugent, to fashion a screenplay. The decision was made to make the film more comical than the play and attract a wider interest.
Ford was pleased to be working again with Fonda... it was be their seventh pairing. The cast would also be littered with a few more of Ford's stock company including Ken Curtis (his son-in-law), Harry Carey Jr., Patrick Wayne and old reliable Ward Bond. Ford had worked with Cagney three years earlier and had just finished The Long Gray Line with Betsy Palmer and Phil Carey. New to a Ford film were long-timer William Powell and relative newbies Jack Lemmon, Nick Adams and Perry Lopez. It all looked so promising.
The story is terrific and unusual for a military film in that there's not a gun or bomb to be found nor do audiences see anyone killed. This fact is likely why so much comedy was added. The men aboard the U.S.S. Reluctant are seriously suffering from cabin fever. They have almost nothing to do, have seen no action and haven't had liberty in over a year. Roberts is the cargo officer, viewed as an all-around great guy except by his captain, who, as he says, hates his guts.
No one is more dispirited than Mister Roberts. To give himself a little hope, he shoots off weekly letters to the D.C. brass requesting a transfer. The captain has to see them and send them along even though he stamps not recommended for transfer. The fact that the letters keep coming annoys the captain and makes Roberts the enemy.
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| The battle royal.... |
My favorite scene (in a movie full of good scenes) is when Mister Roberts goes to the captain and asks for liberty for the men since they are pulling into a port. The captain refuses and Roberts blows up calling him ignorant, malignant and arrogant and asking where they scraped him up from and how he ever got command of a ship. The captain finally offers a deal... the men can have liberty if Roberts stops writing the letters and stops badmouthing the captain to the men. This scene positively bristles with electricity.
We don't see the men on liberty but we do see them returning to the ship in a very funny sequence. Most are so soused they can barely stand and we hear how they crashed an army officer's party, broke into the French colonial governor's home and got into fights. One returns with a goat and of course no one drove a motorcycle off a pier in that stage version.
The mayhem leads to The Reluctant being kicked out of port. The captain blames Mister Roberts for everything and their warfare is increased. The crew loves to taunt the captain but no one does it better that Ensign Pulver (Lemmon) who blows up the laundry with his homemade bomb.
The crew gets sidetracked by thinking Mister Roberts has double-crossed them but get wise when they hear the truth when an intercom is left on in the captain's quarters. In appreciation the crew sends a letter in Mister Roberts' name and with the captain's copied signature.
It works and Roberts gets his transfer. He finds out what the men have done when his trusted buddy, Doc (Powell), tells him. This scene and the one following where the men say their goodbyes is mighty touching. And another heartfelt one is the penultimate scene when at mail call two letters arrive... one from Mister Roberts and one about him. Try watching this scene with dry eyes.
Pulver, who has been promoted to Mister Roberts' position, owns the film's final scene when he charges up to the bridge and tosses the captain's beloved palm tree overboard and busts into his quarters and yells to the captain... now what's this crap about no movie tonight?
The filming ended on an upbeat note but it wasn't always that way.
One day, while they were still filming near Midway Island, it was time to film the opening scene (not shot in order) with Fonda and Powell. The latter was having trouble remembering his lines and Fonda did not like that Ford wasn't being a little more considerate, even though he must have known that wasn't in the director's bag of virtues.
Later that night Ford called Fonda into his room where the actor noted Ford had been drinking. Fonda knew that was not something Ford did while filming (although he usually tied one on once a film wrapped). When Ford told him he had heard Fonda had been mumbling some things about the Powell situation, Fonda was reluctant to say anything. After Ford's badgering, Fonda finally said something, without temperament or insults or challenges, and Ford got up from his chaise and punched Fonda in the mouth.
There were apologies galore the next day but Fonda was hurt from his longtime director's actions and had cooled toward him. Perhaps he used some of that in the film since Mister Roberts and the captain had their own frosty relationship.
When the company returned to the Warner Bros sound stages, Ford went missing for a few days and then it was announced that he was going to have kidney surgery and would be leaving the production. Hmmm. Luckily, Mervyn LeRoy was still hanging around the studio and happily accepted the assignment. He would wind up sharing a co-directing credit with Ford.
After LeRoy left, some earlier footage was viewed and the decision was made to reshoot two scenes. Interestingly they were Lemmon's two best... the aftermath of blowing up the laundry and the finale with Cagney. Josh Logan was recruited. They weren't going to give a third director credit but he was credited as a cowriter.
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| Ward Bond joins the others for some laughs at Cagney's home |
An all-star cast delivers all-star performances. This is probably my favorite Fonda performance... and that's really saying a lot when one considers what the man has given us. He achingly displays the tortured soul of cargo officer Doug Roberts. His response to the laundry explosion is a belly laugh like we've rarely seen from him. He felt very paternal toward this project but when it was all over, he said he liked the play better. I can't imagine.
As the mean-spirited, vengeful captain, Cagney played him as caricature, for which he took some hits. I thought he was most effective. I'm guessing more comedy was instilled in Cagney's portrayal and that it is this role that differed the most from the stage version. It was a wonderful performance and Cagney was having a good year having just completed one of his best roles as Doris Day's rat of a husband in Love Me or Leave Me.
As it turned out this film was the last in the storied career of Powell and he had a right to be proud of his lovely performance, wrapped in humanity and without a trace of the problems he had with Ford or remembering his lines. Doc was the conscience of the crew, a sounding board for Roberts and the man who took him down a notch or two when he needed it.
This was only the fourth big screen performance for Lemmon and he won a well-deserved supporting Oscar for his impeccable comic timing alerting us to Pulver's braggadocio which covered his own brand of cowardice.
Ward Bond wasn't given much to do but he and the entire supporting cast were letter-perfect.
I thought the scene bringing Betsy Palmer and her nurses on board was a waste of time and some of the characters were played by actors a little long in the tooth, but oh who cares?
Have a peek at this wonderful film...
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He navigated through Hollywood
the best he could
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