Can someone tell me what the whole deal is about the strawberries? I see this in many McCain threads...things like, thats where I had the strawberries, or something, and I feel foolish I must have missed something he said. I’ve tried googling McCain and strawberries without much luck.
Just curious.
Rent “The Caine Mutiny” and you’ll get it. Its a great movie so your time will be well spent.
In a memorable performance on the witness stand (similar to Bogart's performance in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)), Queeg gradually traps himself and loses all credibility during his own testimony. He slowly disintegrates, becomes incoherent and paranoid, and discredits himself under tough cross-examination questioning from Greenwald about each incident. Queeg foolishly and hysterically defends and justifies his actions in the strawberries incident, and condemns the disloyalty of his officers. While he babbles on and on, and absent-mindedly rolls the two steel balls in the palm of his hand, he cracks under the pressure:
They were all disloyal. I tried to run the ship properly by the book, but they fought me at every turn. If the crew wanted to walk around with their shirttails hanging out, that's all right, let them! Take the towline - defective equipment, no more, no less. But they encouraged the crew to go around, scoffing at me and spreading wild rumors about steaming in circles and then 'Old Yellowstain.' I was to blame for Lieutenant Maryk's incompetence and poor seamanship. Lieutenant Maryk was the perfect officer, but not Captain Queeg. Ah, but the strawberries! That's, that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with, with geometric logic, that, that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist. And I would have produced that key if they hadn't pulled the Caine out of action. I, I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officer. (He pauses - looks at all the questioning faces that stare back at him, and realizes that he has been ranting and raving.) Naturally, I can only cover these things from memory...