250
ienced and compassionate (Queeg's
superiors) .
No effort is made to portray
the enlisted men of the
Caine,
ex–
cept insofar as they advance the
story and play their little super–
numerary roles in the mutiny. We
see them vaguely, through a veil
of sympathy, although a good deal
of the action takes place in the
confined quarters of the
Caine.
As
for the messmen, who appear only
to pour coffee, they are simply
good-humored, yassuh-ing Ras–
tuses. Not that there is anything
of vulgar anti-Negro prejudice in
this. Here is a different kind of
vulgarity, not unlike the blind
"liberalism" of the Hollywood
moviemakers who attempt to rep–
resent a cross section of America
by showing us army companies
composed of bragging Texans,
tough but sentimental Brooklyn
Jews, quiet and brave Western–
ers' oversensitive but essentially
courageous rich mens' sons, and
Negro boys who are almost like
everybody else. . . .
When the
Caine
is caught in a
violent storm and seems doomed,
Queeg freezes on the bridge, un–
able to issue the orders that would
save the ship. At this crucial point
Maryk takes command and does
save the ship, with the passive con–
sent of Keefer, Willie and the
other officers. After the storm the
ship returns to the United States
and Maryk is court-martialed for
his unprecedented behavior; and
Willie, knowing that he, too, must
stand trial if Maryk is convicted,
supports his fellow officer to the
best of his ability. Keefer protects
his own career by equivocating
and refusing to swear to Queeg's
madness. But Maryk is finally ac–
quitted thanks to the brilliant
courtroom tactics of his counsel,
Lieutenant Commander Barney
Greenwald, a crack Jewish lawyer
from Albuquerque, who is recuper–
ating from severe burns received
on active duty as a carrier fighter
pilot. Greenwald is convinced that
Maryk and his mates are guilty,
but he is equally convinced that
he can get Maryk off, and he
finally succeeds, by harping on
Queeg's instability and by appeal–
ing to the navy's pride in its of–
ficer caste.
Keefer throws a champagne
party to celebrate the sale of
his
novel together with Maryk's ac–
quittal. Greenwald is invited,
comes in drunk, and stays just long
enough to deliver an impassioned
speech to the shocked officers of
the
Caine
and to throw his cham–
pagne in Keefer's face. In his
speech Greenwald indicates that
for him the war has been a strug–
gle to save his grandmother from
being melted down into soap like
the Jewish grandmothers of Eur–
ope; in that struggle the Queegs
-regardless of their brutality or
stupidity-have played an essen–
tial role by contributing their skill
to the maintenance of a vital core
of defense in the years when
mil–
itary people and military expenses
