There's an interesting little story. Oh, one story. There are many stories attached to the making of Mr. Roberts.
Some of them concern the location, which is the island of Midway and then locations in Hawaii.
That's one of the reasons that James Cagney decided to make the movie because it would mean a bit of a holiday for him as well.
But among the stories, there's one that is actually involved with one of the greatest war films ever made.
Have you ever seen They Were Expendable with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne?
It's a wonderful film. It's a film that one viewing cannot provide or give you all the pleasures that film has to offer.
Well, when Mr. Roberts was in pre-production and John Ford was involved, the Navy did not wish to have any involvement,
which would have made the filming much more difficult.
And the reason was they thought the portrayal of the captain, the James Cagney character, was detrimental to the Navy.
And what induced them to be cooperative? Something very simple.
John Ford was able to give them the titles of a few films about the Navy, which had been very positive about the Navy.
And one of them was They Were Expendable. And because of that, they gave their cooperation.
As I mentioned earlier, John Ford became very ill, very hostile.
There were terrible arguments and he left the production, whereupon Mervyn LaRoy came in
and possibly worked some magic insofar as he returned more and more to the text of the play as an adaptation of Mr. Roberts the play.
This one, I think, is first rate. By the way, interesting point too.
Mr. Roberts, of course, we always think of Henry Fonda in the part.
But Tyrone Power also appeared on stage, I think, in London as Mr. Roberts.
And another Mr. Roberts was Charlton Heston.
But somehow I feel that Henry Fonda is Mr. Roberts, don't you?
We shall return to Mr. Roberts in a few moments.