Mister Roberts (1955)

Mister Roberts (1955)

Directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy

Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent and Joshua Logan, based on the play by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan, from the novel by Thomas Heggen

Runtime: 2 hr, 1 min

There are some actors whose mere presence is enough to sell a film to a moviegoer.  For me, two such men are Henry Fonda and Jack Lemmon; films such as 12 Angry Men and Days of Wine and Roses rank among my favorite movies.  So if you are a studio head and you want to guarantee that I’m intrigued (and you somehow have time travel), then put Fonda and Lemmon in a film together.  As far as I can tell, there’s only one such movie, and that’s today’s film, Mister Roberts.

Fonda plays the title character, a lieutenant on the USS Reluctant (aka “The Bucket”), a cargo vessel in the Pacific; the action takes place in the closing months of WWII.  The crew likes the lenient Roberts, but they bristle under the command of Morton (James Cagney), a strict captain driven by ambition but with no legitimacy.  The ship is only efficient because of Roberts, and Morton knows it, which is why he disapproves of all Roberts’ attempts to transfer to a combat vessel, won’t ever let the sailors on shore for liberty, and is just a generally not nice person to hang around.

The structure of this conflict would suggest that Mister Roberts is a drama—and indeed there are dramatic elements to it—but in fact the movie is broadly a comedy.  For the most part, the shenanigans that the crew partakes in are played for laughs.  Some of these sequences don’t quite flow properly, such as the overextended bit with the sailors watching women in the shower through binoculars.  That said, the tone of the film stays markedly jovial through a great share of the proceedings.

Lemmon proves the strongest in handling the comedic scenes.  He plays Frank Pulver, the officer in charge of laundry and morale and Roberts’ bunkmate.  He’s a hapless fellow; lazy and deathly scared of Morton.  He’s also the driving force for some of the film’s most memorable moments, including a very funny plot to get back at Morton which results in a whole mess of soap suds below deck.  It’s easy to see why this was Lemmon’s breakout role, and it ended up winning him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

This is not to diminish everyone who is not Jack Lemmon, except, well, no one is quite up to Lemmon’s level here.  Don’t get me wrong: Fonda is as strong as ever and completely demands your attention while William Powell’s turn as the ship’s doctor comes with a grizzled wisdom and one drop of light amusement.  But the characters aren’t very dynamic; they’re emotional ranges are of limited size.  Sure, Mister Roberts turns sullen during the second half of the movie, but that comes off as more binary, whereas Pulver is all over the damn place: goofy, enraged, depressed, failing to seduced the nurses, etc.

Still, those guys are all good.  Cagney, on the other hand, is not bad per se, but he leaves something to be desired.  His acting make Morton a bit too incompetent, and since this isn’t purely a comedy—the actors all get their dramatic moments in early and often between the jokes—it made me wonder what’s holding the central conflict together.  Morton is still tyrant, but there’s not much menace.  As a result, his connection to the story feels like it is meandering about, unsure of whether to play him as a threat or as a punch-line.

Setting the confusion regarding the villain aside, Mister Roberts actually does a fine job balancing drama and comedy.  Even after scenes such as the boys making “scotch” (alcohol, coke, iodine and hair tonic) so Pulver can give it to a nurse, there’s nothing jarring or out of place with Roberts contemplating the repercussions of his deal with Morton to give the sailors liberty in Polynesia.  I must hand it whichever director was on the film at the time, because maintaining good comedy with legitimate drama is quite the challenge.

This tendency, however, really falters at the very end.  Long story short, a major character dies off-screen, and the mood of the entire ship takes a dower turn.  This in and of itself would not be a problem, as it had been foreshadowed throughout and in fact seemed inevitable.  The problem arises when, after another character snaps, the closing frames have an almost sitcom-esque appearance to them—hello, someone just died!  There are few things more irksome than a poorly handled character death, and that sadly left a bad taste in my mouth.

But, while the ending needs some improvement, Mister Roberts remains a fun movie to watch.  I can see why this is one of my dad’s favorite flicks, and while I doubt that I will ever hold it in that sort of regard, I would certainly not object to watching it again.  If nothing else, it provides the answers to the question, “Hey, what’d happen if Fonda and Lemmon did a film together?”  What can top that?  Well, maybe throw Spencer Tracy somewhere into the mix, but other than that…