Most critics recommend The Caine Mutiny, and almost all for the same reason: Bogart’s Captain Queeg. Playing against type as a craven, paranoid commander coming apart, he is described across the reviews as the film’s centre, and several find the character tragic rather than villainous by the time the court-martial arrives. The trial scenes draw the next most consistent praise, along with the adaptation’s success in keeping the shape and sense of the novel. One review singles out the Technicolor photography of the shipboard sequences.
The reservations are about pace and direction. Two reviews call Dmytryk’s handling stodgy, one finds the storytelling standard old-fashioned fare lifted by its cast, another thinks the final section muddled, and one admits a rough start. The spread is narrow, with most landing in the same band; the lone dissent is Time Out, which finds the strong cast never given room and Bogart’s charisma dimmed by how tired he looks.