Fridge / The Caine Mutiny

Fridge Brilliance

• When Greenwald confronts Keefer while the Caine officers are celebrating the acquittal, he accuses Keefer of not having "one-tenth the guts" that Queeg had. Keefer responds: "Except I never fooled myself, Mr. Greenwald." On the surface, this seems like Keefer is defending himself by saying that he at least is sane and not delusional, unlike Queeg. (And Keefer probably intends it this way.) But in reality, he's admitting this: he planned all along to torpedo Queeg and make Maryk take the fall for it. You could give Keefer the benefit of the doubt: that he sincerely believed Queeg was crazy and only later, on realizing the repercussions of what he'd started, did he back out. But if he never fooled himself, and knew it, then he also never really expected to take responsibility. He was always going to engineer things so that he would stay clean and his Navy life would be as cushy as possible. And Greenwald gets this right away. His response to Keefer: "From the beginning you hated the Navy. And then you thought up this whole idea. And you managed to keep your skirts nice and starched and clean." Greenwald isn't accusing Keefer of mere cowardice; he's accusing Keefer of using Maryk, Keith, and Queeg as tools for his greater plan.
• During the court-martial, Greenwald acts mostly indifferent towards the witnesses he cross-examines (even when he's trying to get information out of them), and the only times he stands up and leaves his seat are with Dickson (the navy psychologist who examined Queeg) and Queeg himself. In examining Dickson, whom he has no trouble going after, Greenwald stands easily and walks towards him when he's discrediting his testimony. When it comes to Queeg, however, Greenwald stands only reluctantly, sounds a lot colder and harsher in his tone of voice, and is equally reluctant when he mentions having to produce a witness who will discredit part of Queeg's testimony, which shows just how much he doesn't want to do this part of the job.