I'd never seen this one before and came across it looking for Alec Guiness movies. I found it enjoyable and historically accurate. What's curious is that Peter Ustinov's film version of Melville's Billy Budd was released the same year. Both stories are set against the background of the Napoleonic wars and the Nore and Spithead mutinies. Also, both feature truly evil antagonists, Dirk Bogarde in the former and Robert Ryan in the latter. Of the two films, I rank Billy Budd higher; it tells a story with some depth, and the acting is superb. Terence Stamp made an impressive debut as the ill-fated Billy.
Review of Damn the Defiant!
