Damn The Defiant! (aka H.M.S. Defiant) (1962) Nothing, but nothing beats a rip-roarin', cannon blasting, cutlass swingin' Napoleonic naval war movie........
Here's our fave.......with Alec Guinness as Captain Crawford, a stalwart but humane commander pitted against his black-hearted, sadistic second-in-command (Dirk Borgarde )
It's 1797 and the mighty British navy's on the verge of a fleet-wide mutiny as they're waging war with Nappy.........(seems the sailors don't much care for the burtal forced recruitment via press gangs, not to mention the maggot-infested food and regular floggings from upper-crust creeps like the odious Lt. Scott-Padget (Borgarde)
This ship's almost as bad as a Carnivale cruise........at least the bathrooms function....(we think)
Crawford tries to put the brakes on the tirelessly evil Scott-Padget........who responds by arranging daily beating of Crawford's 12 year old son, who signed on as a Midshipman......(this kid probably wishes he signed on for summer camp instead.....)
Ah, but here come the French sailing in, so everyone has to momentarily stop yelling, flogging and abusing each other to swing on board to the enemy ship......for some good old-fashioned stabbin', slashin', drownin' and general cutlass-perforating of those Napoleonic No-Goods.
Then we go right back to the 24-lash floggings........(Scott-Padget's favored punishment for anyone who makes eye contact with him.....he's like a sea-going movie star Diva).......and that long-promised, long overdue all out mutiny finally erupts.....
Terrific stuff, firmly in the "they don't make 'em like
this anymore' category.......with the expected powerful clash of two acting Titans backed up by a full roster of excellent British character actors (Anthony Quayle, Nigel Stock, Murray Melvin, Tom Bell)
BQ hoists all our sails and 4 stars (****) for this voyage........another excellent summer getaway......(as long as you don't get gang-pressed into the crew)
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