Herman Wouk’s Pultizer-prize-winning novel and subsequent two-act play, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, is one of the best of either ever set on a U.S. Navy destroyer. If it had a remarkably true ring to it, keep in mind that Wouk was a young officer on two old four-piper destroyer minesweepers– USS Zane and USS Southard— during WWII.
The 1954 film adaptation by noir director Edward Dmytryk– with Bogie as the haunted LCDR Queeg, Van Johnson as the upstart LT Maryk, and a young Jose Ferrer as Maryk’s defense counsel, LT Greenwald– is just classic.
Those damned Baoding balls…
Now, it seems like Showtime is trying to capture some of that old magic by tapping William Friedkin to direct a new version of the story, with Kiefer Sutherland filling Bogie’s shoes.
I have to admit, it looks decent. Hopefully, it won’t be too “modernized” to the detriment of the story.