1964 film by Joshua Logan
Ensign Pulver is a 1964 American Technicolor film in Panavision and a sequel to the 1955 film Mister Roberts. The film stars Robert Walker Jr., Burl Ives, Walter Matthau and Tommy Sands and features Millie Perkins, Larry Hagman, Kay Medford, Peter Marshall, Jack Nicholson, Richard Gautier, George Lindsey, James Farentino and James Coco.[2]
The film was directed and co-written by Joshua Logan, who had directed and co-written the 1948 Mister Roberts stage play on Broadway,[3] and also shot scenes for the 1955 film after director John Ford fell ill.
The story concerns the U.S.S. Reluctant, a cargo ship in the waning days of World War II, which is at anchor beside a tropical island. The ship's captain is as much of a "Captain Bligh" as ever. Several of the film's events — such as attacking the Captain while he is watching a film, and one of the sailors trying to obtain compassionate leave to deal with the funeral of his child — are taken from Thomas Heggen's original 1946 novel Mister Roberts. The characters of Pulver, Doc and several crewmen return from the first film, but played by different actors.
Plot
U.S. Navy Ensign Frank Pulver constantly feels unappreciated. When he personally aims a sharp object into the hindquarters of the hated Captain Morton the crew cannot imagine that the all-talk, no-action Pulver could be behind it. A poll to guess at the identity of the "ass-sassin" results in votes for almost everyone except Pulver, which he bitterly resents.
Shipmates Billings, Insigna, Skouras and Dolan do not take Pulver seriously while despising the captain, who refuses to grant leave to seaman Bruno to attend his daughter's funeral back home. Doc is the only one aboard who believes in Pulver's potential at all.
At sea for months at a time, Pulver is unable to indulge his greatest interest, women, until a company of nurses lands on a nearby atoll. The head nurse is pleased to meet him when Pulver introduces himself as a doctor serving on a destroyer, but nurse Scotty suspects the truth and a smitten Pulver confesses to her that he's no doctor and nothing more than a junior officer on "the worst ship in the Navy."
Bruno becomes so deranged, he attempts to kill the captain. Pulver reluctantly intervenes, but the captain falls overboard, and is about to drown until Pulver lowers a life raft and dives in to save him. Separated from their ship, with the crew unaware for hours that they are missing, Pulver and Morton bicker aboard the raft. The ensign takes notes while the delusional captain reveals dark secrets about his past.
In need of emergency surgery, Morton ends up owing his life yet again to Pulver, who follows Doc's instructions over a radio and removes the captain's appendix. Back aboard ship, Morton's natural tendencies resurface and he tries to return to his martinet ways. Although Pulver has the goods on him now he shows genuine compassion for the captain and convinces him to leave the ship for his own well-being. Morton takes his advice and departs, turning over command to the more popular LaSeur.
Production
Ensign Pulver began production under the working title "Mr. Pulver and the Captain". Location scenes for the film were shot in Mexico City and Acapulco, Mexico.[4]
Actor Jack Nicholson took it upon himself to assist director Josh Logan with casting, becoming an informal "assistant producer."[3] Logan, who hoped that the film would repeat the success of Mister Roberts, recognized that it had fallen short of that mark, writing in his autobiography:
We thought we had everyone in the picture that anyone could ask for ... But we had left out the most important thing: the catalytic agent, Mister Roberts. And without him, the story falls into shreds. No one really cares about the others enough to create suspense as to the outcome.[3]
In the original film, Jack Lemmon had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Ensign Pulver, James Cagney had played the Captain, William Powell was Doc, and Henry Fonda portrayed Mister Roberts.
Paperback novelization
Concurrent with the release of the film, Dell Publishing issued a paperback novelization of the film by W. H. (William Henry) Manville, writing under the pseudonym he used for tie-in work, "Henry Williams."
