HMS Defiant

This late 19th century seafaring saga has some impressive credentials: a strong cast, a script by Nigel Kneale and Edmund H North (the latter did the adaptation for Ray's In a Lonely Place and co-wrote Patton), beautiful CinemaScope photography by Christopher Challis, crisp editing by Peter Hunt (later to become a Bond stalwart), and superb design by Arthur Lawson. It was nothing special in 1962, but today seems rather cherishable, and to make it now would cost rather more than $40 million. As an evocation of class conflicts among the officers and bitter resentments among the press-ganged crew, the movie is tense and convincingly acted, with the traditional Mutiny on the Bounty roles reversed: Captain Guinness is the humanitarian, and First Lieutenant Bogarde is the unrepentant cat-lover.