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The Caine Mutiny (1954) More at IMDbPro »

The 1953 Columbia film, The Caine Mutiny, had its Midwest Premiere in Chicago at the State Lake Theatre (State, near Lake street), at 4 pm, on Wednesday, June 30, 1954. An ad appeared in the Chicago Tribune, same date, and featured the following:

Celebrate Tonight 4 pm----Attend the Midwest Premiere of the most provacative novel of modern times---"The Caine Mutiny"

Celebrate with the US Navy . . . see the gala and colorful Navy parade on State Street---at 6:30 pm Enjoy the Naval festivities outside of the State Lake Theater at 7 pm. Be among the FIRST to be thrilled by the stark realism and dramatic impact of this great, Pulitzer Prize-winning best seller . . . the complete story---from cover to cover!

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Gossip Column Item about the Premiere:

Chicago Sun-Times, Friday, July 2, 1954, p. 42, c. 1:

Kup's Column

"The Loop was Jumpin' Wednesday night, with rival parades heralding the opening of two movies. The Navy marched in behalf of "The Caine Mutiny" at the State-Lake and a group of Indians whooped it up for Burt Lancaster's "Apache" at the Roosevelt. Both openings, incidentally, established box-office records, with "Mutiny" even bettering "The Robe's" all-time first day gross . . . "

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The following ad appeared in May:

The Chicago Tribune, Saturday, May 16, 1954, p. F3:

"What A Movie THE CAINE MUTINY Will Make!"

That's the feeling 12,000,000 readers had as they thrilled to the pages of THE CAINE MUTINY! The tremendous pace, purpose, peoople and story that won Herman Wouk's novel the Pulitzer Prize cried out for production on the screen.

Now we feel that promise is fulfilled. For the last two and a half years all of us here at Columbia have set as our goal a Technicolor production of THE CAINE MUTINY worthy of the book. Toward that end we've poured into it our every resosurce of time, talent, effort and imagination.

That's why every detail down to the casting of the smallest bit part was a matter of major moment to us all. We wrestled with that problem alone until we had a cast precisely attuned to Herman Wouk's story. In the finished picture, Humphrey Bogart is Queeg--Jose Ferrer, the perfect Greenwald---Fred MacMurry, matchless as Keefer---Van Johnson, the very soul of the deeply troubled Maryk. In the part of Willie Keith, who grows from blue-eyed Ensign to steady-eyed Exec, newcomer Robert Francis carves his niche as a star of tomorrow. And look for May Wynn---another newcomer---another new star. But casting was just one of the problems we saw, met and think we've conquered.

For the action that takes place in Hawaii, Producer Stanley Kramer and Director Edward Dmytryk took cast and camera half way across the Pacific to Pearl Harbor itself. Except for the prinicpal characters the men and the ships you'll see in THE CAINE MUTINY are the ships and the men of the United States Navy---for whose unstinting cooperation we are deeply grateful.

We have seen THE CAINE MUTINY. We believe it to be great. We believe it will fire the heart, excite the mind and stir the emotions of mankind as long as will the story.

And that, we believe, will be forever.

[signed] Sincerely, Harry Cohn President Columbia Pictures Corp.

P.S.: Coming soon to the STATE-LAKE, Chicago

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The following news account will provide details:

Chicago Sun-Times, Monday, August 1, 1955, p. 5, c. 1:

Plane Crash Kills Actor, 2 Others

BURBANK, Calif. (AP)---Actor Robert Charles Francis, 25, another man and a woman were killed in the fiery crash of a private plane on an unused parking lot. Police tentatively identified the other victims as George Meyers, pilot, and Audrey Dosch, 24, wife of lst Lt. Edward Dosch of Lowry Air Force Base, Denver.

Francis, a newsomer in films, played the role of Wille Keith in "The Caine Mutiny."

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The World Premiere of the soon to be hit Columbia film, The Caine Mutiny, happened in New York City at the Capitol Theatre (Broadway at 51st street) on Thursday, June 24, 1954 (according to the New York Times for that date). The ad further states:

Robert Francis & May Wynn,, two of the stars of "The Caine Mutiny" will be in our lobby today at opening to greet their fans and distribute photos. GIFTS TO THE FIRST 500 LADIES IN LINE!

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Chicago Tribune, Sunday, May 2, 1954 [magazine section], p. H20:

The Story Behind 'The Caine Mutiny'

Long-Awaited Film Dramatization of Herman Wouk's Best-Selling Novel About the Navy Gives Newcomer May Wynn Chance of a Lifetime

by William Leonard

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Her name before she got the starring film part was Donna Lee Hickey, fancy enough in its own right for any marquee. But this girl wasn't going to give anyone the impression she wasn't taking "The Caine Mutiny" seriously. So she had her name changed legally to May Wynn.

Miss Wynn is one of two unknowns surrounded by big cinematic names in the movie's cast. Robert Francis plays his first movie role as Ensign Keith, the Princeton lad who enters the navy a mama's boy and emerges a man.

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Donna Lee Hickey no furor in the film studios, making her screen debut two years ago in "The Farmer Takes a Wife" and appearing since then only in a couple of brief hits. She was one of more than a hundred girls who sought "The Caine Mutiny" lead, and one of a dozen finalists tested by Producer Stanley Kramer.

Seldom is a picture's success so taken for granted in advance that the studio knows the feminine lead will attain stardom almost automatically. But Columbia was so certain that Miss Wynn, formerly Hickey, would blossom into immediate importance that they signed her to a long-term contract as soon as she had won the part, even before the camers began to roll.

"The Caine Mutiny" is that kind of story!

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Variety, Wednesday, August 1, 1956, p. 62, c. 5 (gossip column item):

Scholarship in memory of Bob Francis has been established at the Batomi Schneider Drama Workshop here. Francis, who was killed in a plane crash a year ago today (Tues.), was a Schneider student, prior to entering films.

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Chicago Tribune, Saturday, May 29, 1954, p. 8:

This Is

ED SULLIVAN

Speaking

New York, May 28---The late Arthur Hopkins, Broadway producer of distinction, overrode all objections of his associates and picked Humphrey Bogart to play the gangster, Duke Mantee, in Robert Sherwood's "Petrified Forest," when the play went into rehearsal in 1934. His production associates were Gilbert Miller and Leslie Howard, who were just as startled at Hopkins' choice of Bogart as was Sherwood. Not, mind you, that there were any personal grudges against Bogart. But he's played so many country club type roles on Broadway stages that nobody, apart from the discerning Hopkins, could visualize him as a mobster.

That was 20 years ago. Today, Bogart is still going strong, given top billing in Stanley Kramer's "The Caine Mutiny," Columbia's box office appeal successor to "From Here to Eternity."

When Bogart, on the night of Jan. 7, 1935, came onstage at the Broadhurst theater, he was starting a career of huge dimensions. The ciritics didn't pay much attention to him, lavishing their opening night adjectives on Leslie Howard and Peggy Conklin. "And Bogart, of all peoople, playing a gangster," noted Burns Mantle. "He was quite good, too."

In the picture based on Herman Wouk's Pulitzer prize novel, Bogart plays the part of navy captain Queeg. Stars supporting him are Jose Ferrer as Lt. Barney Greenwald, defending Van Johnson as Lt. Steve Maryk, with Fred MacMurray as the scheming Lty. Tom Keefer.

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, the film uses color cameras to get the fullest impact of the storm which precipitates the charges of mutiny, the red gleam of battleship batteries in action, the fire fall at Yosemite, and other things which can't be reproduced on a stage.

And this brings us to some reflection on this movie treatment of "The Caine Mutiny" and the Paul Gregory-Charles Laughton stage projection of "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial."

Perhaps because the stage play concentrated on the courtroom scene, the moving picture concentrates instead on the storm at sea. It is a show business truism that courtroom scenes are fool proof.

Pictorially, the movie is correct; dramatically, the stage play was correct, because of the tremendous power of the story is bounded by the four walls of that navy courtroom.

In the stage play, Henry Fonda, playing the part of Lt. Barney Greenwald, batters down the mutiny charges by a magnificent series of cross examinations.

In the picture Ferrer, in the Fonda role, is severly restricted. He is not given the opportunity to trap the second navy psychiatrist, which highlighted Fonda's performance, because the film has eliminated the second psychiatrist. Ferrer also is denied the opportunity of tricking navy Capt. Southward into damaging rebuttal of Capt. Queeg, because the film has no Capt. Southard.

The Navy, I've been told, insisted that the moving picture delege much of the material OK'd for the stage treatment, because a moving picture has world coverage. Whether or not this is a fact, this reporter doesn't know, but if true, it might explain the footage devoted to the totally inconsequential love story involving ensign Willie Keith, played by handsome newcomer Robert Francis. A younger girl should have been cast opposite him.

At any event, the stage finally comes off the winner, because of the basic fact that the power of Wouk's story is best expressed within the walls of the courtroom.

Bogart, as Capt. Queeg, does a magnificent job, giving the character all of the shadings which flowed from Wouk's pen. Van Johnson, as Lt. Maryk, turns in the greatest perfomaance of his interesting career, indicating the colossal steps he's taken since those matinee and night performances on Broadway as a dancer in "Pal Joey."

Fred MacMurray's development of the character of Lt. Keefer seemed uneven. it is difficult to reconcile his frankness and courage in talking up to his superior officers, in the early reels, with his craven and abject attitude of the concluding reels.

To those who only see the picture, and thus won't have the stage play for comparison, "The Caine Mutiny" will be exciting fare. To those who saw the stage play, comparisons will be inevitable.

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