Released ahead of Mutiny on the Bounty in both the US and UK in 1962 under differing titles – Damn the Defiant and HMS Defiant – the outline of this fictional tale is somewhat like that film’s but inverted, with a kind and effective captain pitted against a sadistic and manipulative first mate who drives the crew to mutiny.
Set approximately at the same time as the real-life Spithead and Nore Mutinies of 1795, the tale loots that fleet-wide protest and attempts to distill it to the experience of a single ship. The Spithead Mutiny, in fact, appears in the plot of the film.
The good Captain Crawford is portrayed by none other than Alec Guinness, and his antagonist, Lieutenant Scott-Padgett, by Dirk Bogarde. Director Lewis Gilbert’s preceding career featured 1960’s Sink the Bismarck! and would go on to include Alfie and three Bond films, including Moonraker. The film was shot off the coast of Spain and at Shepperton Studios.
| Director | Lewis Gilbert |
| Starring | Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde |
| Links | IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes score: 100. TMDB: H.M.S. Defiant. JustWatch streaming availability. |
Contemporary reviewers have a tendency to describe the film as pedestrian, with the exception of the cinematography showing ships in combat. For the film, some relatively large-scale model ships were built, and there were also two real sailing vessels employed, the Marcel B. Surdo (previously seen here in exterior shots used for Captain Horatio Hornblower) and the Angiolina H, both built early in the 20th century in Italy and previously employed in yet another 19th century naval epic, John Paul Jones.
I found the film to be thoughtfully written and performed and well-shot, a definite improvement on the preceding film in the first set of Offshore Quarantine screenings.
7.1
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