MovieChat Forums > The Caine Mutiny (1954) Discussion > DVD Commentary

DVD Commentary

posted 10 years ago by Eric-62-2
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I'm well aware that being expert on television history is a different thing from being an expert on film history, but the two guys who do the commentary track for the film are so ignorant of TV history when they comment on some actors who had later fame in TV it's amazing.

1-They fail to remember the name of Herbert Anderson who has an unbilled role as one of the Caine's officers. They remember properly that he was on Dennis The Menace but they keep saying he played Mr. Wilson when he played Dennis's father. (to be fair, in the featurette they correct this). But one thing neither was aware of regarding Anderson is that he's the only actor in the film who later had a role in the 1955 live-TV production of "Caine Mutiny Court Martial" taken from the Charles Laughton directed Broadway production.

2-When Whit Bissell appears as the psychiatrist (the role that Anderson played incidentally in the TV production) they struggle for several minutes to remember his name and when they finally do, one of them says, "He was the psychiatrist on I Dream Of Jeannie." Uh, wrong, that was Hayden Rorke.

3-Neither seem aware that Lee Marvin after starting out with these small roles in films then got his break as the star of the TV series "M Squad."

4-They were familiar with Jerry Paris later becoming a prominent TV director, but were fuzzy on the fact that he was acting first on the Dick Van Dyke Show and then eased into his new career as a director from there.

5-About the only thing they got right was E.G. Marshall's later fame on "The Defenders".

The moral of the story is that if you plan to do a commentary from the perspective of being an expert in the field as opposed to a participant doing reminiscences, its usually a good idea to bone up on some of these things you're liable to be commenting on when the film unfolds. If you're going to mention certain actors along the way and run down their histories, it usually helps to make sure you've got those details straight.

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 10 years ago

Agreed . . . they should've had some sort of a rehearsal . . .

Bissell also played a psychiatrist in the Sinatra film, Never So Few . . . and E. G. Marshall seemed forever to be cast in lawyer roles . . .

I wonder if Anderson was in the stage production? I'm not certain if any player in the stage production was brought over to the film?

[–] Eric-62-2 10 years ago

I'm not sure if Anderson was in the stage production originally. The TV production did have Lloyd Nolan reprising his stage role as Queeg and John Hodiak was presumably scheduled to reprise his role as Maryk but died just before the production. There was no way Henry Fonda was going to return as Greenwald given the bad blood between him and Laughton!

No one in the stage production was in the film. If Anderson was in the stage production they weren't using him in the same role.

On another point regarding TV history the film commentators were unaware of, was that another Anderson, Warner Anderson who plays Captain Blakely the senior officer on the panel of judges, began his long run as the star of "The Lineup" not long after the film came out. Given that the trial is taking place in San Francisco where "The Lineup" was filmed, I found that nicely ironic!

[–] Doghouse-6 10 years ago

Herbert Anderson was indeed in the original Broadway cast, but as you say, not in the same role: that of Dr. Bird, one of two psychiatrists (Dr. Lundeen was the other) testifying about Queeg's mental fitness. The Whit Bissell character of Dickson was presumably a composite of the two (my guess, anyway).

Richard Norris also appeared in both (as one of the silent court-martial board members).

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 10 years ago

Okay, then from what I'm reading I'd conclude that no one from the original stage production was in the finished movie (except that possibly Hodiak was scheduled for the part of Maryk) . . .

[–] Eric-62-2 10 years ago

No, I think Doghouse has clarified that Herbert Anderson and Richard Norris (didn't know about him) were in both play and *movie* (but Anderson not in the same role). My comment about Hodiak was that he was up to play Maryk again in the *television* production based on the play but died before it happened.

[–] bradford-1 9 years ago

Those two so-called "commenters" steamed me up, too. Not just the fact that they were ignorant about the supporting actors, but they didn't seem to know Bogart's age when the film was made and/or released, they weren't sure about how he got his lip scar and also fell down on the job when it came to tidbits on Van Johnson and Jose Ferrer. Aren't these DVD commenters rehearsed? Their research seemed hit-or-miss.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?

[–] Doghouse-6 9 years ago

I've long since forgotten the identities of the Caine commentators, but as with all things, I've heard great commentaries, horrible ones and those at all points in between.

I interject here that, oddly, one of the poorer ones I've heard was Mel Brook's on Young Frankenstein; he gives the impression of having simply sat down to watch the film with audiotape running, expecting to wing it, but there are stretches where he gets so caught up in enjoying his own film that he forgets to say anything, occasionally inserting only a fond and wistful, "Oh, Madeline" or, "Oh, Marty."

And I suspect that's how any number of them approach the job: no special preparation or notes on points they wish to get across; just trusting themselves to do it off the cuff while the film runs. Sometimes it works; others not.

Some clearly do a great deal of prep. I wouldn't be surprised if some work from what amounts to a script, perhaps recording their commentary in sections, like the narrator of a documentary, carefully timed to the action on the screen. And again, there are those at all points between.

I've heard single commentary tracks with multiple commentators who were obviously not together when they did them, with the finished result the product of audio editing (of which, if memory serves, one of the Laura tracks is an example).

So it's my guess they're done in all manner of ways, cumulatively yielding the inconsistent results in evidence.

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 9 years ago

I'm assuming these so-called commentators are getting paid . . . you'd think they'd put in the effort to do as good a job as possible . . . fill it in for viewers . . .