Henry FondaMister Roberts

Love all the actors in this movie. Oscar worthy performances.

Excellent, hard to find, DVD.

Excellent Drama-ComedyFonda Lemmon, Cagney,

It’s a classic and I have to watch it every year. Great story, great actors, from when movies had a story line.A great one to go along with it is Ensign Pulver. Not Jack Lemmon, but it does have Walter Mathou as the doc.

It's great when a film considered one of the great classics of its decade holds up as well now as it did in the mid 1950's when it was released. It was wildly popular in its day, ending up the second-biggest box office film of 1955. it was nominated for three Academy Awards and won one for newcomer Jack Lemmon's supporting performance as Ensign Pulver. Originally it appeared as a novel of short vignettes by Thomas Heggen that was a best seller (selling over a million copies) in 1946, Heggen was 24 when he signed up after Pearl Harbor and was a Lieutenant on supply ships in the Atlantic and Pacific and knew what he was talking about; he basically was the Henry Fonda character. Heggen and Joshua Logan (w that ho would later co-write and direct south Pacifc) adapted it into a long-running Broadway play that won them tony Award's. Mister Roberts was played by Henry Fonda and it became his signature role.Though Fonda was a natural choice to play Roberts, Warner Brothers was afraid he had been out of movies too long since Mister Roberts had run for seven years on Broadway. Director John ford insisted on him because he and Fonda had worked on films together in the past. Fonda was the only Broadway carry-over but group of actors assembled for the film was flawless. James Cagney handled the difficult role of Captain Morton with all the expertise of his long career. The Captain (actually Lieutenant Commander) was a cruel, slave-driving martinet, selfish and ambitious, almost pathologically so yet he couldn't be allowed to become a cartoon villain or a too serious Captain Queeg type. Lemmon played Pulver with just the right mix of laziness, insouciance and fear of even meeting the captain. William Powell was the warm center of the film, a truly wise ship's doctor who gives good advice and is pretty good at mixing up some fake Scotch whiskey. Most of all he tells Roberts he's as valuable on a supply ship with all of its boredom and monotony as he would be if he was on a fighting ship, a lesson that really hits home in the end. This was Powell's final role on film. Frequently this means an actor died soon after but Powell, already 60, lived to be over 90 in comfortable retirement. The rest of the cast were as good in their roles as the principals.Mister Roberts was the first film about the war that was as much a comedy as it was a drama. This would seem risky, but audiences had warmed to the book in 1946 and the play in '48, so there didn't seem to be a big taboo over this (though funny Nazi's would have to wait until mid-60's TV). What it didn't do was try to mix it with action, the usual subject of war films, which would have made it too serious for the comedy.The film stayed pretty close to the play with almost everything happening on the small set of the ship. The only attempt to open it up was a brief visit to the island hospital and a big scene of Polynesians rowing out to greet the ship when it arrives in a Tahiti-like place. From its appearance you would never suspect this was a troubled production but it vas very troubled indeed. John Ford was a difficult man to get along with and here he was at his worst, getting into fights and arguments with everyone, even Fonda. In interviews, Cagney called him "A truly nasty old man". He was fired when he punched Fonda in the jaw and almost simultaneously had a gall bladder attack requiring immediate surgery. The film was finished by Mervin Leroy, who tried to follow ford's intentions (there's still a lot of Ford's traits in the film) and an uncredited Joshua Logan.Mister Roberts is rewarding to watch today, mostly for its fine acting. Just remember that it is a character driven comedy-drama and not your typical action-packed war film.

Great story of WWII in South Pacific. Not everyone is a hero in warfare.

"Mr. Roberts" is probably one of the greatest war films ever made—even though there is no actual fighting in it. It is funny, it is touching, and it is even sad but uplifting.It is the story of how brutal boredom and inept command can crush men's spirits, and simple acts from an empathetic officer can lift them.Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon (in a breakout role), James Cagney and William Powell (at the end of their careers), even Ward Bond and Nick Adams. How could you go wrong?We made our millennial, special effects enamored children watch it with us (there are no significant special effects; it is all character and story), and they laughed throughout and had to admit it was pretty good, and very touching.Watch it to see how a film can be terrific without explosions... well, OK, there may be one explosion in it, but it is not what you are thinking.

Love this movie.

Another classic movie from the past, when quality movies reined.

Temi que al no tener subtitulos en espanol tuviera problemas para entender pero los subtitulos en ingles los suplieron, nostalgia en el buen sentido de la palabra, con un elenco admirable desde los actores principales y los asi llamados secundarios, dialogos inteligentes y dos momentos a senalar como william Powell y Henri Fonda ensenan a Jack Lemon como preparar un whisky y la escena final.

La calidad de vídeo no se corresponde a un Blue-Ray sino a un vulgar DVD, dudo que sea HD.Me ha parecido vergonzoso ver como la imágen se pixela por falta de definición.Un timo.

It almost sounds 'corny' nowadays with streaming choices and yet 'back then' Broadcast TV often repeated the same films. My memory is of PT-109 and Mister Roberts. They were a 'comfortable' way to 'zone out', you've see it before but the final scene payoff was always invigorating, despite the repeats. Years later I actually served in the Navy, these films weren't fantasy anymore. I consider that my last Commanding Officer to be written right from the script. Based on a Stage play (like Stalag 17) this film is well acted an has heart. Henry Fonda wore his real WW 2 Navy Cap and the film basically made Jack Lemmon. A John Ford Classic and (upon the first watching) if you don't have a tear in your eye and get angry only to be uplifted, you aren't human. This is a keeper. l0l

una simpaticissima e divertente pellicola da vedere sicuramente +++++++++++++ ancora ++++++++ e daiiiiiii mi mancano cinque parole tre due una eurekaaaaaaaa.