The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Act 1: The Prosecution

Summary

BBC production of the first act of Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was presented in a special performance before an invited audience from the London Hippodrome (Radio Times, 20 July 1956, pp. 6, 20 and 21).

Theatre play

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial by Herman Wouk [more information]

Play synopsis

The action takes place in the General Court-Martial Room of the 12th Naval District, San Francisco in February 1945 and concerns an alleged mutiny aboard the USS Caine, a minesweeper in the Pacific. It begins with Willis Keith’s assignment to the Caine, chronicles the mismanagement of the ship under Philip Francis Queeg, explains how Steve Maryk relieved Queeg of command, gives an account of Maryk’s court-martial, and describes the aftermath of the mutiny for all involved. The play covers only the court-martial itself. Like jurors at a trial, the audience knows only what various witnesses tell it of the events on the Caine.

Production history

Caine adapted this two-act play from his own novel The Caine Mutiny. ‘The play was first presented by Paul Gregory in the Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, California, on October 12, 1953 and then went on tour across the United States before being given its first performance on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on 20 January 1954 in a production directed by Charles Laughton’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caine_Mutiny_Court-Martial).

Date of transmission

Monday 23 July 1956

Time

7.30pm (60 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Director

Lloyd Nolan

Television Presentation by

John Vernon

Playwright

Herman Wouk

Cast

James Douglas	Orderly
Peter Dyneley	Lt Cmdr John Challee
Robert Hardy	Lt (j.g.) Willis Seward Keith
Philip Keatley	Stenographer
David Knight	Lt Barney Greenwald
Esmond Knight	Captain Randolph Southard
Vivian Matalon	Signalman Junius Urban
Alec McCowen	Dr Bird
Richard Newton	Lt Thomas Keefer
Lloyd Nolan	Lt Cmdr Philip Francis Queeg
Nigel Stock	Lt Stephen Maryk
Peter Williams	Captain Blakely
Martin Wyldeck	Dr Forrest Lundeen

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

American drama; court-room drama; military / army / navy / air-force

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 20 July 1956 (Magazine)

Linking notes

pp. 6, 20 and 21

Title

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Audience Research Report)

Archive

BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC) [more information]

Address

Peppard Road
Caversham Park
Reading
Berkshire
RG4 8TZ
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)118 948 6281

Email

heritage@bbc.co.uk

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/wac

Access

The WAC is open from 9.30am to 5.00pm on Wednesdays to Fridays throughout the year to academics, postgraduate students and writers by appointment.

Reference

Report reference VR/56/385, held in file R9/7/23

Title

The London Hippodrome (Newspaper review)

Reference

The Times, 14 June 1956, p. 5

Title

The ‘Caine’ Mutiny: Broadway Play Based on Wouk’s Novel (Newspaper article)

Reference

The Times, 10 April 1956, p. 3