Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg: 8 Quotes About Iconic Role

In the final years of his career, Humphrey Bogart delivered one of his most memorable performances in "The Caine Mutiny."

Bogart portrayed Captain Queeg, the paranoid captain of a naval battleship who is relieved of command in a mutiny by his junior officers after he makes a series of irrational and dangerous decisions.

It earned Bogart his final Academy Awards nomination and remains one of his most iconic roles among fans decades later.

Here are eight quotes about Bogart's portrayal of Captain Queeg:

1. "Humphrey Bogart's twitchy performance of the "by-the-book" Captain Queeg is a bit in the usual Bogart manner but, by and large; it is sound."
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

2. "Bogart started out his career playing nervous villains sweating their way through packs of cigarettes as they waited for their bad karma to catch up with them. Nearing the end of his career (and his life), Bogart finds a little of that cowardly rat in Queeg."
– Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine

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3. ["The Caine Mutiny"] was originally filmed in 1954 and saw Humphrey Bogart deliver an Oscar-nominated if un-Bogie-like performance as Captain Queeg, an unstable, obsessive, ball-bearing-clicking despot struggling to command a navy minesweeper during the war in the Pacific."
– Jeremy Aspinall, RadioTimes

4. "The captain is a once great man who has been knocked around by war, and he stands firm at first, only losing his footing by degrees. When he does finally shatter, Bogart makes it heartbreaking. This is not an evil man, but one who has lost his way. The actor is sensitive to his character's illness, and it's one of the great icon's most nuanced performances."
– Jaime S. Rich, DVD Talk

5. "At its best, "The Caine Mutiny" is an even thornier version of that scenario, both validating and disparaging the mutineers while making Queeg (in Bogart's gutsy portrayal) a figure of ridicule as well as a paragon of dignity."
– Mike D'Angelo, Letterboxd

6. "In the hands of a lesser actor Queeg could easily have become merely a two-dimensional madman. Bogart instead infuses Queeg with pathos and demonstrates to the audience that this is a good man who sadly is no longer responsible mentally for his actions."
– Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic

7. "The neurotic Commander Queeg is a far cry from the kind of role that earned Bogart his reputation — sadistic gangsters and hard-boiled detectives – but he makes the part one of his most convincing and poignant."
– James Travers, French Film Site

8. "I think I was the first actor cast in 'The Caine Mutiny.' Originally I was approached about playing Captain Queeg. I thought I was too young for the part. So I said, ' I want to play Barney Greenwald, and I want it in my contract that Humphrey Bogart plays Queeg.'"
– José Ferrer

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