Written by Kris Land
Before it became a silver screen hit, Mister Roberts started out as a novel followed by a Broadway play. The
novel, written by Thomas Heggen, was published with the same title but included a series of short stories that tell of Heggen's personal experiences in the South Pacific aboard the USS Virgo during World War II. The novel caught the eye of Broadway producer Leland Hayward, who hired Heggen along with Joshua Logan to create the stage adaptation.
The original Mister Roberts was first seen on Broadway on February 18th, 1948, performed in the Alvin Theatre. Today, the Alvin Theatre is known as the Neil Simon Theatre and can still be seen at 250 West 52nd Street in Manhattan.
Although the film version borrowed from the talent of many extremely big name actors, the Broadway play was equally well cast. Henry Fonda took up the lead role, just as he did later in the film. David Wayne mastered the part of Ensign Pulver and Marlon Brando's older sister Jocelyn replaced actress Eva Marie Saint just before Mister Roberts opened. Joshua Logan's brother in law, William Harrigan, assumed the role of the captain. The original production also included actors Ralph Meeker, Murray Hamilton, Harvey Lembeck, and Steven Hill.
At the time Mister Roberts was cast, Henry Fonda was already tied up in a Hollywood film contract. To ensure that he could take up the role as Mr. Roberts, Fonda got out of the contract. It was a wise decision because his part in the production earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
The Mister Roberts play marked an important, shining highlight on the career of everyone who was a part of the production. Joshua Logan included the story of his effort in the production along with Thomas Heggen in his autobiography, Josh: My Up and Down, in and Out Life.
For some, the Broadway adaptation was the best Mister Roberts created. That is not to say the film did not earn itself significant notoriety and a place among the greatest classic films of the 1950s. However, Joshua Logan was brought into the film version production to help redirect a few of the scenes that the producers did not feel lived up to the original story. Later, Henry Fonda and Joshua Logan both commented that the Mister Roberts film did not meet the same level as the Broadway version managed. However, all versions of this sparkling story offer their own degree of pure magic.
One of the more enduring plays to emerge from the World War II era, Mister Roberts shows, with a light touch, a side of war that is often forgotten, not the excitement or the heroism of battle, but the boredom of the men assigned to less glamorous work, where one's enemies are as often as not the officers who hold power over them, rather than the soldiers or sailors of the opposing forces.
Mister Roberts Summary
Act 1, Scene 1
Mister Roberts takes place aboard the U.S. Navy cargo ship AK-601, operating in the Pacific. It begins a few weeks before V-E Day. Just after dawn, as the sleepy crew ignores the reveille call, Roberts reports to Doc that the previous night he observed a Navy task force stretching for miles on the horizon. He shows Doc a letter he has written requesting a transfer to combat duty. He writes these letters every week, but the captain never approves them. Dowdy tells Roberts the men must be given a liberty (time ashore), which they have not had for over a year, since the captain always denies their requests.
The men straggle onto the deck. Insigna discovers he can spy on the female nurses as they shower in the hospital on the island. The men all rush to see, using their binoculars. Mannion and Insigna get into a fight, and Roberts realizes he must get some shore leave for the men, to ease their frustration and boredom. The captain cancels the movie that night because a man was on deck without a shirt, a violation of orders.
Act 1, Scene 2
Roberts tells Pulver his plan to get the men ashore. He has offered a quart of whiskey, which Pulver had been hoarding in a shoebox, to the Port Director, whose job it is to decide where the ship goes next. Pulver is dismayed because he has invited one of the nurses onto the ship, and now he has no alcohol for her. Doc solves the problem by making fake Scotch out of Coca-Cola, iodine, and hair tonic. Roberts teases Pulver that he is afraid of the captain and never carries out any of the pranks he thinks up, such as putting marbles in the captain's overhead so they will roll around and keep him awake at night. In a conversation with Doc, Roberts repeats his desire to see combat. He knows the war is nearing its end.
Act 1, Scene 3
As the men load up a Navy ship with supplies, Roberts disobeys the captain's orders not to give out any fresh fruit. He also allows the men to remove their shirts. The captain summons Roberts, but Roberts sends word he is busy. The outraged captain comes on deck and picks a quarrel. He criticizes the wording in Roberts' transfer request and tells him not to write any more. He orders the men to put on their shirts, but they refuse, until Roberts tells them to do so. The captain tries to punish Roberts, saying that he will be confined to his room for ten days, but he backs down when he realizes that Roberts is indispensable to the running of the ship. The men are delighted to have observed Roberts getting the better of the hated captain.
Act 1, Scene 4
Pulver brings the nurse Miss Girard onto the ship. He pretends to have seen combat action and to be the executive officer. He tries to take her to his cabin, but on the way, they run into the men. Insigna makes a remark that reveals the men have been spying on the girls. Miss Girard verifies with a pair of binoculars what has been happening and promptly leaves, saying she has promised to help the girls put up curtains. The men are disappointed that their sport has ended, but Roberts cheers them up by announcing that they are going to Elysium Island, where they will have shore leave.
Act 1, Scene 5
As the ship approaches Elysium, the men eagerly anticipate getting off the ship. But the captain announces that because of cargo requirements and security conditions, there will be no liberty.
Act 1, Scene 6
In the captain's cabin, Roberts demands to know when the crew will be allowed to go ashore. The captain replies that the only way the crew will get liberty is if Roberts stops writing letters requesting a transfer. The captain hates Roberts but needs him. If Roberts leaves the ship, the captain will not be able to attain promotion to the rank of commander. Roberts at first refuses to go along with the captain's plan, but eventually agrees to it. The captain also gets him to promise not to talk back to him in front of the crew, or to tell anyone of their meeting.
Act 2, Scene 1
It is 3:45 A.M., and the men straggle back from shore leave. Some are drunk, while others have been injured in fights that resulted after they gate-crashed a dinner-dance for Army personnel. Roberts deals with them mildly, allowing some of the men to go back ashore. He is pleased with them because they have bonded as a crew. After more trouble ashore, the captain is ordered to report to the island commander.
Act 2, Scene 2
The captain tells Roberts they are being kicked out of the port. He orders the men to work harder and hints to Roberts that he might get a promotion if he does a good job. He gives Roberts some orders, which Roberts obeys, to the consternation of the men. Dolan produces a bulletin that says there is an urgent need for experienced officers aboard combat ships. But Roberts is reluctant to sign the letter Dolan has typed for him. The men do not understand why.
Act 2, Scene 3
The crew think that Roberts has buckled under to the captain because he wants a promotion. He has also put Dolan "on report," a disciplinary measure, which has further upset the men. Roberts begs Doc to transfer him to the hospital on the next island, but Doc refuses. After they hear an announcement on the radio that the war in Europe is over, they call for a celebration. Pulver tells of his latest scheme, to throw a firecracker under the captain's bunk. He goes to the laundry room to test it, and there is a tremendous explosion. He returns, unhurt but covered in soapsuds. Roberts wants to make another firecracker, but Pulver says he has no more materials. He is disappointed that he has let Roberts down.
Act 2, Scene 4
The men are cold towards Roberts. He apologizes to Dolan and takes him off report, but the men remain unfriendly. After the men exit, Roberts takes the palm tree from the container and throws it over the side. The captain enters, notices the absent palm tree, and orders the crew to battle stations. He demands to know who did the prank and guesses it was Roberts. Roberts denies any knowledge of it, and the captain gets so worked up he makes himself ill. After Roberts leaves the captain/s cabin, the men once more treat him with respect.
Act 2, Scene 5
Roberts has gained his transfer, but he does not know how. Dolan tries to convince him that one of his old letters was finally approved, but Doc reveals that the men wrote a letter for him, forging the captain's signature. The men enter and give him a going-away present, a brass medal shaped like a palm tree, attached to a piece of gaudy ribbon.
Act 2, Scene 6
Some time has elapsed. The men are reading their mail. Pulver reads a letter from Roberts, dated three weeks earlier. He is aboard a destroyer that has been subject to four air attacks at Okinawa. He is happy to be in the war at last. He keeps the "medal" his men gave him on his desk, saying he would rather have it than a Congressional Medal of Honor. Pulver then reads another letter he has received from a friend who serves on the same ship. The letter informs him that Roberts is dead, following a Japanese suicide attack. Pulver throws the palm trees over the side, goes to the captain's cabin, and announces what he has done. Then he challenges the captain about why there is to be no movie that night.
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Related Articles:
Thomas Heggen the authorKris Land
Behind the Scenes of Mr. RobertsKris Land
Lieutenant Thomas HeggenKris Land
Henry Fonda a shining lightKris Land
James Cagney, Eighth GreatestKris Land
Jack Lemmon, The Face of PulverKris Land
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1944: Camano Class Light Cargo Ship was laid down for the US Army as FS-289 at Wheeler Shipbuilding in Whitestone, NY.
1945: Delivered to US Army.
1950: Acquired by the US Navy on July 1, 1950 and placed in service as USNS New Bedford (T-AKL-17).
1954: The movie, Mister Roberts, was made on the USNS New Bedford (T-AKL-17).
1955 - 1963: Used as a cargo supply ship for the Texas Towers, a network of advanced radar stations located off the Eastern Seaboard. In 1957, Capt. Sixto Mangual was commander of the AKL-17 and in 1961 it was rechristened the USNS New Bedford. The New Bedford, sailing out of State Pier, was keeping vigil when Texas Tower No. 4 callapsed off the New Jersey coast during a January 1961 nor'easter.
1963: Reclassified as Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX-308).
1971: The New Bedford (IX-308) served as a Torpedo Test Firing Vessel in the Puget Sound area.
1994: Ceremony in New Bedford.
1995: The ship was struck from the Naval Register on April 4.
2004: The Sea Bird's current disposition is a tuna long liner (fishing boat) out of San Diego, CA.
2006: Design of the Tesla Turbine began on June 11, 2006. The Sea Bird was sold by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service for commercial service.
2007: The Sea Bird was drydocked for renovations.
2008: The Sea Bird setting sail to Sea-Tac in Seattle, WA.
2009 - 2010: The Sea Bird is currently docked at Seattle Sea-Tac.
