Editing The Caine Mutiny (1954 film) (section)

==Pre-production==
===Writing===
Herman Wouk had already adapted his novel as a stage play, ''[[The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (play)|The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial]]'', which premiered on Broadway in January 1954 and ran for more than a year. The play was directed by [[Charles Laughton]] and was a critical as well as a commercial success.<ref name="Hischak">{{cite book|last1=Hischak|first1=Thomas S.|title=American literature on stage and screen 525 works and their adaptations|date=2012|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=9780786492794|pages=35–36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfie60kGGuAC&pg=PA36|access-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> Wouk was initially selected to write the screenplay, but director Dmytryk was dissatisfied with his draft. He replaced the novelist with [[Stanley Roberts (screenwriter)|Stanley Roberts]], an experienced screenwriter. Roberts later quit the production after being told to cut the screenplay so the film could be kept to two hours. The 50 pages worth of cuts were made by [[Michael Blankfort]], who received an "additional dialog" credit.<ref name="tcmarticle">McGee, Scott [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/25162/the-caine-mutiny#articles-reviews "The Caine Mutiny" (TCM article)]</ref>

The film differs from the novel, which focused on the Keith character, who became secondary in the film. The film instead focuses on Queeg.<ref name="Hischak" /> Independent producer Stanley Kramer "mollified the Navy" by modifying the Queeg characterization to make him less of a madman, as portrayed by Wouk, and more a victim of battle fatigue.<ref name="Johnson bio">{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Ronald L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RG2PFR0tFSAC&pg=PA159 |title=Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy |date=2016 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=9781496803856 |pages=159–161 |access-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> Studios did not want to purchase the film rights to Wouk's novel until cooperation of the U.S. Navy was settled.<ref name="tcmnotes">TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/25162/the-caine-mutiny#notes Notes]</ref> Kramer purchased the rights himself for an estimated $60,000 – $70,000. The Navy's reluctance to cooperate led to an unusually long pre-production period.

===Casting and director===
Stanley Kramer and Columbia Pictures intended  to cast Humphrey Bogart as Philip Queeg. [[Columbia Pictures]] president [[Harry Cohn]] knew that Bogart wanted the part and took advantage of that fact, and he was eventually able to force Bogart to settle for much less than his usual $200,000 salary. "This never happens to [[Gary Cooper|Cooper]] or [[Cary Grant|Grant]] or [[Clark Gable|Gable]], but always to me", Bogart complained to his wife, [[Lauren Bacall]].<ref name="tcmarticle" />

[[Van Johnson]] was loaned to Columbia by MGM, where he was under contract. Being cast as Maryk was a breakthrough for the actor, who felt that he had been in a "rut" by being typecast in light roles. During the filming of the scene off Oahu in which Maryk swims fully clothed to retrieve a line, his character is warned that there are sharks in the water; these sharks do not appear on camera, but the actor's life was saved when a real-life Navy rifleman shot one which was approaching.<ref name="Johnson bio" /> [[Lee Marvin]] was cast as one of the sailors, not only for his acting, but also because of his knowledge of ships at sea. Marvin had served in the [[U.S. Marines]] from the beginning of American involvement in [[World War II]] through the [[Battle of Saipan]] in 1944, during which he was wounded. As a result, he became an unofficial technical advisor for the film.<ref name="tcmarticle" />

Before choosing Dmytryk for ''The Caine Mutiny'', Kramer had hired the director for three low-budget films. Dmytryk had previously been [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisted]], and the success of the film helped revive his career.<ref name="Dmytryk memoir" />

''The Caine Mutiny'' would be the first feature role in [[Robert Francis (actor)|Robert Francis]]'s short four-film Hollywood career, as he was killed when the private plane he was piloting crashed shortly after takeoff from [[Burbank Airport]] in California on July 31, 1955.<ref>[[Robert Osborne|Osborne, Robert]] outro, TCM broadcast</ref>