Review – Mister Roberts

I wonder what this movie would have been like if they’d followed the inclination of Henry Fonda (who plays the title role, as he did on the stage) to stick with the play’s bleak, grim depiction of naval life rather than caving in to the dictates of director John Ford and adding a bunch of silly comedic elements. Either way, this is a fairly good movie. The story takes place on a cargo ship far from the front lines in the Pacific during World War Two, and the action centers around the conflict between a lieutenant (Fonda) who wants to be transferred to combat duty and a despotic captain (James Cagney) who wants to keep him right where he is. Much of the dialogue has that “theatrical” feel to it, and more often than not the goofy comedic elements stand in jarring contrast to the underlying drama. But overall the production works, at least as a representative of its genre. Worth seeing