Mister Roberts is a 1955 American comedy-drama film directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy featuring an all-star cast including Henry Fonda as Mister Roberts, James Cagney as Captain Morton, William Powell (in his final film appearance) as Doc, and Jack Lemmon as Ensign Pulver.

Based on the 1946 novel and 1948 Broadway play, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actor, with Lemmon winning the latter.

[7] In the waning days of World War II, the United States Navy cargo ship Reluctant operates in areas of the Pacific Ocean far from enemy action.

Lt. Doug Roberts, the executive officer and cargo chief, shields the dispirited crew from their harsh captain, Lt Cdr.

When the ship reaches an idyllic South Pacific island, however, Morton cancels the crew's shore leave.

'Doc,' the ship's doctor and Roberts' friend, confides to him that the crew risked court-martial by submitting a transfer request with Morton's forged signature of approval.

Before he leaves, the crew present Roberts with a handmade medal, the Order of the Palm, for "action against the enemy".

Pulver throws the captain's replacement palm tree overboard, marches into Morton's cabin, and claims responsibility.

Fonda was not the original choice to star in the film version; Warner Bros. was considering William Holden or Marlon Brando for the role.

The studio thought Fonda had been on stage and off the screen so long (seven years) that he was no longer a box office draw.

The film was James Cagney's last movie for Warner Bros., the studio that had propelled him to stardom in the 1930s and under which he had spent the majority of his career under contract.

"the Bucket," in the movie's exterior shots was a former U.S. Army Freight and Passenger/Freight and Supply (FP/FS) vessel, which was originally commissioned in the Navy following World War II.

The light cargo ship then sailed back to Hawaii between 24 and 29 September and additional film was shot off Kaneohe Bay between 30 September and 7 October.A 1994 article which appeared in the newsletter of the Keyport, Washington Naval Undersea Warfare Center, contending that IX-308[14] (another Army FS vessel converted to a Navy AKL (light auxiliary cargo) and assigned torpedo recovery duties at Keyport) was used in filming of Mister Roberts and not Hewell, created a controversy.

[15] That ship had been named USNS New Bedford[16] for its service out of that port serving the USAF Texas Towers radar facilities off the east coast of the United States.

It also starred Burl Ives as Captain Morton, Walter Matthau as Doc, and in small roles, Larry Hagman and Jack Nicholson, among others.