Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This is a great war movie although it's not about the aspect of war that we usually see in Hollywood. There's an explosion, but it's not from enemy action. You see aircraft carriers, battleships and destroyers but they are off in the distance. This movie is set on a cargo ship (of all places). It deals with the efforts of one man trying to get into the war and his battles with his tyrannical commanding officer who was played brilliantly by James Cagney.
I'd have to say the best scene in the movie is when the SP guy is telling about the things the crew did on the island during liberty. But the coolest scene is the look on James Cagney's face at the end of the movie.
This one is one that I can watch over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect cast-perfect movie!
Review: This is one of my all-time favorites. Fonda, Cagney and Lemmon are unforgettable. The closed world of the cargo ship far away from the action provides a lot a drama and humor. The final scene, where Lemmon throws the palm tree overboard and confronts Cagney, must still rank as one of the best ever. The story is so good that even a televised version of the play (with Kevin Bacon as Ensign Pulver) in the mid 80s was great to watch. But this is the real gem!
Rating:
Summary: Here's a Great Way to Handle a Rainy Afternoon
Review: This is one of my favorites. Henry Fonda gives a thoughtful performance as a Naval officer on a cargo ship during World War II, who is torn between the desire to get into combat ("the real war") and his desire to protect the men in his command from the despicable Captain, played admirably by James Cagney. The crew is loyal to him, he wants to be loyal to them and not abandon them to the tyrannical Cagney, but he wants do his part in the real fighting. William Powell is the ship's doctor and gives a smooth performance as Fonda's ally and the ship's resident sage. Jack Lemmon won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Ensign Pulver, who dares everything in his head and his words, but nothing in his actions. This is a good, entertaining story that could not have been cast better or acted out better. Enjoy this one on a night of reruns or a rainy afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: Classy presentation of a classic film.
Review: Warners has given us a beautiful widescreen transfer of "Mister Roberts." I did notice a couple of very small video "hitches" within the first few minutes of the film, but perfect play after that. This remains a thoroughly entertaining and moving film after all these years, and that's no surprise given the stellar cast. The supplemental material is first rate, including Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon recreating scenes from the film live on stage on the Ed Sullivan program. It gives a taste of what the Broadway play must have been like.
Rating:
Summary: From boredom to hilarity and nobility
Review: Watching this again many years after I first saw it, I expected to be disappointed. After all, the great films of our youth sometimes turn out to be something less than we had imagined. But Mister Roberts does not disappoint. This is one of the gems of the American cinema, a poignant comedy featuring a multitudinously clever and delightful script by Frank Nugent and Joshua Logan from a novel by Thomas Heggen made into a play by Logan and Heggen that ran for many years on Broadway. The movie features sterling performances from Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon. Fonda is particularly brilliant in the kind of role from which legends are made. (He also played the part on Broadway.) You can take all your John Wayne classics and toss them overboard with the Captain's palm tree. Henry Fonda as Lt (j.g.) Doug Roberts, cargo officer of the USS Reluctant, shines forth as the noblest hero of them all. He is a quiet, strong, fair, courageous man in a story sure to mist up your eyes even if you're watching it for the twentieth time.Jack Lemmon won a supporting Oscar for his performance as Ensign Pulver, a kind of lazy, but slyly resourceful Walter Mitty type who talks a great game but never follows through... James Cagney is the Captain, a sour, resentful man who mercilessly badgers Mister Roberts and grossly neglects the morale of his crew. He is just perfect. The way he bellows "Mister Roberts!" or way he trembles out the line, "Mister...Mister...this time you've gone too far" delights the audience. William Powell, in his last film, plays the ship's wise and ever diplomatic doc with graceful precision. Marty (1955) starring Ernest Borgnine, a kind of politically correct (for its time) love story about ordinary folk, won the Academy's honor for best picture in 1956, the year Mister Roberts was nominated. Henry Fonda, in perhaps his most beloved and certainly one of his finest performances, was not even nominated. Incidentally, Hollywood legend John Ford directed, but fell ill and Mervyn LeRoy--no slouch himself (e.g., The Bad Seed, 1956; No Time for Sergeants, 1958, etc.)--finished up. There are a number of memorable scenes in the film, the kind recalled with delight. My favorite involves the crew, their binoculars and the nurses. I also loved the careful concocting of the "scotch whiskey" by Doc. The weekly letters requesting a transfer, the Hoot Gibson films we (thankfully) never see, the ever worshipful palm tree, Pulver's marbles in a tobacco tin that he shakes in Roberts's face, vowing to prove his manhood by putting them in the captain's overbin, his "firecracker," his "If I could be with you/One hour tonight/To do the things I might/I'm telling you true/I'd be anything but blue," the giddy nurses, and the infamous liberty are other unforgettable bits. But more than anything, what makes this a great movie, are the indelible characters so very true to our experience, and how nicely they meld and contrast. This is, along with From Here to Eternity, Das Boot, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Caine Mutiny, Stalag 17, and Twelve O'Clock High, among my favorite movies to come out of World War II. What sets Mister Roberts apart is the humor born of the boredom, frustration, and tedium that most truly characterizes life in the service. In this regard I recall a saying that goes something like this: "War is filled with long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of absolute terror." The crew of the Reluctant got only the boredom.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Mr. Roberts
Review: When Henry Fonda received the Kennedy Center honors in the late 70's, as part of his tribute, the Naval Academy glee club sang. Red River Valley saluted Grapes of Wrath, but the highlight was Anchors Away, when the Midshipman director of the glee club turned about face, saluted and said "Thank you, Mr. Roberts." As each Middie left the stage, he saluted and former Lt (jg) Fonda returned each one. Mr. Fonda was reported to have said that that was the greatest honor he received in a truly distinguished career. This movie has that impact--it is a salute to "all those brave men who sailed from Apathy to Tedium, with an occasional side trip to Monotony" (I hope I have this right). When he died, the network news tribute was a dark screen and the sound track as Dolan and the others, having learned just what Mr. Roberts had done for them, each repeated those magic words "Good night, Mr. Roberts." This is my favorite movie, one which I have watched at least 100 times. With marvelous performances by William Powell (Doc), James Cagney (the Captain), and Jack Lemmon (Ensign Pulver), as well as a fine supporting cast, this is a "must have" selection.
Rating:
Summary: Anything Less Than 5 Stars Would Be Criminal!
Review: With this cast, how can you doubt this movie's greatness! Cagney, Fonda, Lemmon, Powell, et al! A great cast and fine performances all around the table on this one. Also toss in Betsy "I've Got A Secret" Palmer, for good measure! Lemmon's Award-winning outing is indeed a standout, along with Mr. Cagney as the over-the-top Captain. The end of the film, as Lemmon reads to the crew of Mr. Roberts' fate, never fails to raise a lump in the ol' throat. Mister Roberts hits all the emotion buttons: it's funny, dramatic, sad, and heart-rending. Worthy of the term "Classic" ! Now .... "What's all this bunk about no movie tonight!!!??" :)
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