The Naval Academy's class of 1936 reportedly reserved two vacant chairs for the fictional Captain Queeg and his wife at a reunion banquet. Ironically, the technical advisor for The Caine Mutiny, Commander James C. Shaw, graduated from the Academy's class of '36.

Screen veteran Dick Powell was so determined to land the Captain Queeg role that he actually begged producer Stanley Kramer for the part. Dead set on Humphrey Bogart, Kramer said no. Powell eventually wound up as the director of a stage play adaptation of The Caine Mutiny, starring Henry Fonda as Lieutenant Keefer and Lloyd Nolan as Captain Queeg. But one week before the play opened, Powell was assigned the starring role in Susan Slept Here (1954) by MGM. Powell left his directing chores five days before the play opened, leaving co-producer Charles Laughton to marshall the production through opening night. Laughton ended up with full credit on the theatre marquee.

Fans of the holiday favorite It's a Wonderful Life (1946) will recognize the actor playing Stilwell, the navigator on the deck of the USS Caine. He is Todd Karns, and he played Harry Bailey, James Stewart's brother in the Frank Capra classic.

The target-towing scene is an excellent example of Hollywood distorting reality when it comes to depicting actual Naval procedures. No battle ship in the Navy's employ at the time could steer a circle tight enough to cut its own towline.

Humphrey Bogart was once asked how he managed to capture the off-kilter personality of Captain Queeg. "Simple," growled Bogart, "everybody knows I'm nuts, anyway."

To unwind from the demanding task of playing Captain Queeg, Humphrey Bogart took a cruise on his boat, the "Santana" after production wrapped. But Bogart was not to escape Captain Queeg so easily. With the first jostle of the boat, hundreds of little ball bearings hidden throughout the boat by Frank Sinatra rolled out, clattering all over the counters and deck. Bogart reportedly said, "I could have killed Frankie at first, but it was a hell of a gag."

Despite the accolades and impressive box office receipts, the director felt that The Caine Mutiny could have been even better. In Stanley Kramer: Filmmaker by Donald Spoto, Dmytryk said, "..it's a disappointment in my career, to tell the truth. I insist it could have been a classic...but Kramer, who (with Dore Schary) is the most publicity-conscious man in the industry, got high-handed with Harry Cohn, and in fact had to toe the line...Stanley Roberts' original script was about 190 pages, even without the romantic subplot...It should have remained that - a three and one-half or four-hour picture - and it would have been more logically developed, the characters would have been further fleshed out. It would have been perfect."

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM THE CAINE MUTINY

Barney Greenwald: I don't want to upset you too much, but at the moment you have anexcellent chance of being hanged.

[Regarding Captain Queeg.] Lt. Keith: Well, he's certainly Navy.
Lt. Keefer: Yeah... so was Captain Bligh.

(Discussing Captain Queeg's sanity.] Lieutenant Tom Keefer: Will you look at the man? He's a Freudian delight; he crawls with clues!

Barney Greenwald: I'm going to be frank with you two. I've read the preliminary investigation very carefully and I think that what you've done stinks.

Lt. Barney Greenwald: And now we come to the man who should have stood trial. The Caine's favorite author. The Shakespeare whose testimony nearly sunk us all. Tell 'em, Keefer.
Lt. Tom Keefer: No, you go ahead. You're telling it better.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: You ought to read his testimony. He never even HEARD of Captain Queeg!
Lt. Steve Maryk: Let's forget it, Barney.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: Queeg was sick, he couldn't help himself. But you, you're real healthy. Only you didn't have one-tenth the guts that he had.
Lt. Tom Keefer: Except I never fooled myself, Mr. Greenwald.
Lt. Barney Greenwald: I wanna drink a toast to you, Mr. Keefer. From the beginning you hated the Navy. And then you thought up this whole idea and you managed to keep your skirts nice and starched and clean, even in the court martial. Steve Maryk will always be remembered as a mutineer. But you, you'll publish your novel, you'll make a million bucks, you'll marry a big movie star, and for the rest of your life you'll live with your conscience, if you have any. Here's to the real author of the Caine mutiny. Here's to you, Mr. Keefer. [Splashes wine in Keefer's face.] If you wanna do anything about it, I'll be outside. I'm a lot drunker than you are - so it'll be a fair fight.

Lt. Keefer: This is the engine room; to operate, all you need is any group of well-trained monkeys. 99 percent of everything we do is strict routine. Only one percent requires creative intelligence.

Captain Queeg: Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic...that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist, and I'd have produced that key if they hadn't of pulled the Caine out of action. I, I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officers...

Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg: You tell the men there are four ways of doing things on this ship: The right way, the wrong way, the Navy way, and my way. They do things my way, and we'll get along just fine.

by Scott McGee