Mister Roberts
Mister Roberts is the kind of film that coined the word "dramedy." Anchored nobly by Henry Fonda, who starred in the play on Broadway (taking the stage as the titular naval officer more than 1,000 times), the film adaptation could best be described as a poignant war comedy—somewhere in between Operation Petticoat and The Caine Mutiny. It's rarely serious enough to merit rapt attention, and seldom funny enough to laugh out loud, but it does blend the two elements nicely. On one side is Captain Morton (played with tenacity by James Cagney), whose pettiness is demoralizing the crew; and on the other is Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon), an indolent wiseass content to ride out the war in his bunk. Stuck in the middle is Lt. Roberts, who just wants to get the hell of this boat and into the war, but he's too good a man to leave his crew suffering at the hands of Morton.
I have a love-hate relationship with all plays adapted into films, mainly because I need to see something different than I would on a stage; and Mister Roberts fulfills that need about half the time. That would be the half directed by John Ford, who shot all the film's exterior and on-location scenes before emergency gall bladder surgery forced him to hand the reigns over to veteran actors' director Mervyn LeRoy, who shot the interior scenes. (That's the official story—other versions say Ford left after literally getting into a fistfight with Fonda over how to play a character Fonda basically owned.) Not that LeRoy was a bad director, but the difference is staggering. Out on deck, the action and actors look relaxed, comfortable and natural. Below deck, everything feels stifled and forced, at least more so than Ford's piece of the film. That could be partially attributed to the close quarters of a navy ship, but mostly it's because of LeRoy's decision to use a stationary master shot almost exclusively. The only performance that doesn't change tenor from director-to-director is the Oscar-winning supporting role from Lemmon. Also in fine form is William Powell, still charming in his final screen performance as the ship's medical officer and Roberts‘ best friend.
- August 27, 2008
DVD Extras
There are a handful of useful features here, such as a video tribute to Henry Fonda centered around his Kennedy Center Honors and a particularly cool inclusion of the cast promoting the film on The Ed Sullivan Show, where instead of showing clips, Fonda, Cagney and Lemmon recreated scenes from the film on the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater. There's also a text reader about the story behind the making of the movie.