DAVID RAYNER

I've just received from amazon UK my DVD of the 1962 British seafaring saga H.M.S. Defiant and a splendid transfer it is, too, presented in its original CinemaScope format and it makes a pleasant change to see the original British title on the film, rather than that of its American version, Damn the Defiant!, which is the only version they ever show on television.

A pity then that Columbia-Tristar video, who have gone to the trouble to locate a British print of the film for this DVD release, could not have tried harder to locate the films British trailer to go with it. Instead, the trailer on the DVD is for the American version, Damn the Defiant!

H.M.S. Defiant is a splendid British naval drama set during the Napoleonic Wars and is a kind of Mutiny on the Bounty in which the roles of the main protagonists are reversed. Here, in H.M.S. Defiant, the Captain is the good guy and the First Lieutenant is the baddie. The drama opens at Spithead, England, in 1797. The Defiant, an unhappy ship with a mainly press ganged crew, sets sail on a special mission to Corsica. There is immediate friction between humane disciplinarian Captain Crawford (Alec Guinness) and his newly appointed, sadistic and vicious First Lieutenant, Scott-Padget (Dirk Bogarde), who has friends in high places at the Admiralty and who has a deserved reputation for breaking every captain under which he has served. Below deck, ordinary seamen Vizard and Evans (Anthony Quayle and Tom Bell) are inciting rebellion amongst the crew.

Scott-Padget, true to form, wants to run the ship his way and, when Crawford stands up to him, he gets back at Crawford by seeing to it that Harvey (David Robinson), Crawford's twelve years old Midshipman son, is severely caned every day in the Gunnery Room on trumped up charges of misbehaviour. He even sees to it that Crawford is making an inspection of the Gunnery Room at the same time, so that he witnesses his son receiving punishment. Although incensed by this, Crawford is unable to intervene for fear of showing favour toward his own son.

Later, when a French vessel is captured, Crawford seizes the opportunity to put Harvey aboard the French vessel as part of a crew appointed to take it back to port, thus ensuring that Harvey is kept out of Scott-Padget's reach. When Crawford is badly wounded during an engagement with another French vessel, Scott-Padget assumes command and his floggings and sadistic treatment of the crew lead to mutiny!

The film is beautifully shot in Technicolor and has some spectacular naval action sequences that benefit from the wide screen expanse of CinemaScope, but it really is an actors piece and Guinness and Bogarde practically strike sparks off each other in many key scenes and David Robinson (whatever became of him?) gives a memorable performance as the juvenile catalyst around which the story revolves. All in all, an excellent film with a good script; some fine performances and a haunting and memorable title theme from Clifton Parker.

There are two other CinemaScope trailers for British war films on the disc (this time they are the original British trailers) for The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Guns of Navarone. The latter is in far better condition than the former. The river kwai trailer is an old and worn cinema exhibition print that has seen better days. It has quite a few splices and there are a few feet missing off the end, causing the trailer and music to end abruptly. Still, it's an improvement on the 1967 re-issue trailer that was put on the beginning of the old widescreen VHS video release of a few years back.

[ 07. February 2005, 17:31: Message edited by: DAVID RAYNER ]