This movie is really a good one, with great actors that we know already. The story of a crew of navy men during the WW 2 on the Pacific Ocean that try to have fun but the captain of the ship doesn't want to hear a thing. Lt. Roberts, played by Fonda, tries to convince his superior to give them the chance to have a permission for 24 hours. Pulver, played by Lemmon, is a real troublemaker and a man who desperately wants to meet the girls on shore. Roberts tries as well to join the front because he's tired of boredom. As the movie goes through the end, a tragic event makes the crew and especially Pulver astonished by reading the letter of a friend of his. Frustated, Pulver finishes the job where Roberts started....

This essential comedy drama features Henry Fonda in the title role, a part that won the actor a Tony Award in 1948. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (after John Ford left the project), it earned Jack Lemmon his first Oscar – Best Supporting Actor – for playing Ensign Pulver, who finally grows a backbone in the film's final minutes, uttering one of movies' most unforgettable closing quotes in the process. The movie was nominated for Best Picture by the Academy and William A. Mueller received a nomination for Best Sound, Recording. The screenplay was written by Frank S. Nugent and Joshua Logan from the play that Logan and Thomas Heggen had adapted from Heggen's novel.Roberts is the cargo officer on the U.S.S. Reluctant, a supply ship anchored among islands in the Pacific some 5,000 miles from where the action is taking place (i.e. Okinawa) near the end of World War II. He yearns to join the fight, but his commanding officer – Captain Morton, played by James Cagney – denies each of his transfer requests. Morton resents college educated 'boys' like Roberts, who is too valuable an officer to let go given the Captain's aspirations for a promotion. A Rear Admiral who'd awarded Morton a palm tree advised him to hang on to his sterling cargo chief, so he tolerates his officer's mild subordination; Roberts suffers while providing a much needed buffer between the tyrannical Morton and the crew, which idolizes their cargo officer. The Captain insists that the men wear their shirts while on deck (per protocol) in the oppressive heat of the South Pacific and has kept them from the recreation of liberty ports for more than a year.William Powell (in his final role) plays the ship's doctor, Roberts' only peer on the Reluctant; both marvel at fellow laundry and moral officer Pulver's braggadocio about his past – improbable exploits, primarily with women – while witnessing his cowardice by avoidance of Captain Morton. Ford regular Ward Bond plays Chief Petty Officer Dowdy and Phil Carey, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey Jr. and Patrick Wayne are among the ship's mates; Martin Milner plays a shore patrol officer who's incredulous at the wild things that the Reluctant's crew does once they finally get their liberty, which is exacted at a high price from Roberts by Morton. Later, Roberts celebrates V-E day by throwing the Captain's cherished palm overboard. Betsy Palmer plays a blond nurse that Pulver meets.

Mervyn Leroy & John Ford directed this hit comedy based on the successful stage play that stars Henry Fonda as Lt. Doug Roberts, who is stationed on a cargo ship in the Pacific during WWII. He desperately wants to see some action, but the tyrannical Captain(played by James Cagney) refuses to grant his transfer request. William Powell plays the Doctor, a fellow Lt. who offers Roberts friendship and sympathy. They are both amused by timid Ensign Pulver(played by Jack Lemmon, who won a best supporting actor Academy Award) who has many schemes to avoid both work, and a confrontation with the Captain, which of course is inevitable... Reasonably funny film with good performances does go on too long and isn't always credible, but is still enjoyable enough as a diversion.

I came across this movie last night on Turner Classic Movies and, I must say, it's the most overrated and sluggish pile of garbage I've seen in a long time.Henry Fonda plays a dreary old sad-sack who complains constantly about being stuck on a Navy supply vessel during World War II. In the first ten minutes, it is immediately apparent that this is going to turn into a "I wanted to go, but now I can't bear to leave" kind of story, but the movie delays this as long as possible, thinking it's clever. Instead, waiting for the inevitable is just as tedious as everything else in this movie. The fellow members of Fonda's crew all act like a bunch of Ritalin-infused five-year-olds on Christmas morning, each with insufferably flamboyant personalities. Yeah, I get it movie, they all want to go on shore leave because the captain's a jerk. I get it. Not a single one of the crew members is interesting, although one of them does sound exactly like Hank Venture from "The Venture Brothers."Speaking of Adult Swim, one redeeming feature of the film is when James Cagney's character of The Captain acts out a scene later depicted in "Sealab 2021" entitled "Happy Cake." Captain Cagney's freaking out about someone throwing his prized palm tree into the ocean is hilarious as, almost line for line, "Sealab" paid homage to it when Captain Murphy's toy oven is also thrown into the sea. I also liked the split second when it looked like Jack Lemmon was going to sink his own ship, but I was pretty ticked to find out it was a lame deluge of laundry bubbles. And, at the end of the film, it was actually pretty hilarious when, after all his complaining, Henry Fonda finally makes it onto a destroyer only to get killed drinking coffee.Other than that, the film is not worth the more than two hours of your life it will consume. To its credit, the film does effectively make YOU feel like you're trapped on this ship - which members of the film community will chirp about being "brilliant" for being metatheatrical or whatnot - but keep in mind that such people forget that films are supposed to be entertaining, and not every story demands it play out like a Greek drama.And that's the other problem with this movie: PACING. Even if your movie is about someplace where nothing happens, pacing is still important. Otherwise you may as well just replace the seats in theaters with beds. Consider "Duel" or "Cast Away," for example, where one character in absolute solitude can still be captivating. They're both flawed movies, too, but I must say they conveyed their messages much more effectively. "Mister Roberts" is the antithesis of this model, lumbering and moping along until it fizzles at the finish. It's a musical with no songs. It's "Clerks" without the profanity. It has "Return of the King" Endless Ending syndrome, moving from the natural ending after they get kicked out of port to MORE pointless scenes of little to nothing happening. If anything, it's more like "Ocean's 11," featuring an "impressive cast" just standing around doing nothing. That being the case, Henry Fonda is certainly the film's George Clooney.Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Twentysomething internet poster doesn't know squat about "classic" movies and needs Michael Bay to make things interesting. Well, let me tell you this: "To Kill A Mockingbird" is an awesome movie. "12 Angry Men" is an awesome movie, and Henry Fonda was awesome in it. "Casablanca" was a REALLY awesome movie. "Mister Roberts," on the other hand, is an insult.