Mister Roberts

Mister Roberts is an old favorite of mine. It's one that makes me think of my dad, who also loves it. We used to quote lines from it, most notably James Cagney's angry, "Who did it?"

Ostensibly a war comedy, Mister Roberts also has is poignant moments, including an ending which I won't spoil here, even if it is a 63-year-old movie. Henry Fonda stars in the title role as cargo officer of a supply ship in the Pacific. He longs to get into the action, instead of supervising a rust bucket full of toothpaste and toilet paper. But Cagney, the Captain, refuses to endorse his transfer requests, even though the old man can't stand him. Fonda is a "college boy," and Cagney hates that, and he can't stand that the men look up to him.

Other characters are Doc (William Powell, excellent as always in his last film role), and Jack Lemmon as Ensign Pulver, a singularly unique character. Lemmon hides from the captain. When they finally meet Cagney doesn't know who he is, and is astonished that he's been on the ship 14 months. Lemmon's job is officer in charge of laundry and morale, but he spends most of his time in his bunk reading dirty books or planning pranks on the captain that he never carries out. Fonda tells him he's likable, but also the laziest man he's ever seen.

Since the men are starting to become stir crazy, Fonda agrees to give up asking for transfers if Cagney will give the men shore leave. An agreement is hatched, but the crew get so drunk they're hauled in by the shore patrol (a cameo by Martin Milner as a shore patrolman with a Southern accent is hysterical). Fonda, having no more fucks left to give, throws the palm tree Cagney won overboard.

Mister Roberts was first a novel then a play and then a film. It was directed by John Ford and Mervyn Leroy, with Ford being fired from the movie after repeated clashes with Fonda (ironically, Ford insisted Fonda play the part, over William Holden and Marlon Brando). The performances by the four leads are just so good, with Lemmon winning an Oscar, but Cagney brims with so much rage it's hard to believe he wasn't really that mad.

The film is basically about leadership, or lack thereof. Fonda is admired and respected because he puts the crew ahead of himself, while Cagney allows spite and bitterness to make him a martinet. "They must have scraped the bottle of the barrel to find you," Fonda tells him. The film also keeps alive, even in a war-time military, the spirit of rebellion. When Pulver makes a firecracker that blows the laundry room apart, Fonda couldn't be more delighted. The enemy, in this case, is not the Japanese but the absolute power on the bridge.

This is one of those must-see movies, a beauty, full of laughs and heartache.