'THE CAINE MUTINY'........A DIFFERENT CREW APPALLED BY THEIR UNHINGED COMMANDER

The Caine Mutiny (1954)    While Trump searches high and low for the hidden SuperMole Of The Resistance in his midst,  we couldn't think of a more appropriate movie to post about........

              Quite controversial in its day, with its depiction of a completely fictitious U.S. Navy mutiny, the film gave Humphrey Bogart yet another legendary role.........the paranoid, cowardly, half mad Captain Queeg.

               Paranoid?  Cowardly?  Half mad?   Hmm.......who does this guy remind us of?  Hold on, it'll come to us in a minute, we're sure.......

                It doesn't take long for a trio of his officers, (Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis) to judge Queeg as dangerously unstable.......(basically, the guy's 2 cans short of a 6-pack and a genuine menace to the World War II minesweeper he commands.....)

                MacMurray's character,a spineless eel always covering  his own ass, eggs on Johnson and Francis to overthrow Bogart before he capsizes the boat in the middle of a raging storm........setting the stage for the film's climactic fireworks at the two officers face a court martial for their mutiny.......

                 And Bogart caps an already bravura performance with his cross-examination at the military tribunal.......in which his psychosis and unfitness are laid bare for all to see.

                  Coming back to whom Queeg reminds us of.........surprisingly, it's not entirely Trump, though Queeg does indeed share Trump's cowardice, paranoia and overall pettiness....(and Queeg's insane search for the strawberries-and-ice-cream thieves does mirror Trump's enraged hunt for the SuperMole....)

                 In revisiting Queeg, he seems a far more Nixonian character.......almost pathetic in his many failings.....a damaged soul who, dare we say it, comes close at the end to engaging your sympathy.

                 The sniveling, mentally undone Queeg, madly spinning little ball bearings in his hand, sees a world that's turned against him.......and he can only rail and rant about the unfairness of it all. In this regard, Queeg's a perfect coming-attractions preview of Richard Nixon.

                  Where Queeg veers off from the our current, so-called 'commander-in-chief'........Queeg, for all his deficiencies, is not afflicted with Trump's ice cold streak of cruelty and the soulless lack of empathy for anyone except himself...... all the trademarks of a sociopath.

                  Queeg is all too human and in his climactic breakdown, you sense that deep down, he's aware of his own destruction. Trump, on the other hand, existing only within his own ego, could never attain that level of understanding.........there's not a single drop of humanity in him to make that possible, not to mention his unlimited capacity for bullying and elementary-school style insults.

                  What also struck us mightily was Fred MacMurray's Lt. Keefer.........presented in the film as the story's one true, genuine villain........a two-faced worm who's willing to engineer Queeg's downfall without getting his own hands smudged or taking any real responsibility.

                   Lt.Keefer kind of reminds us of the current GOP crowd pretending to serve the country........sniping at Trump privately but quaking at his rage publicly........Keefer especially made us think of the SuperMole hiding within Trump's inner circle, crafting his/her Resistance manifesto while staying safely......(how would Trump put it...)....amominous.....anominal.......annominish....

                   Timely viewing for a rainy weekend, we salute "The Caine Mutiny" with 4 stars (****).....as for our current woeful Commander, as always.... Minus To Infinity And Beyond.......