Review: The Bedford Incident

Cold War flick in which Richard Widmark’s NATO battleship is intruded upon by two newcomers; replacement doctor Martin Balsam, and visiting reporter/photographer Sidney Poitier. Both men will get on the nerves of the tough, unbending captain Widmark (in full-on, hard-bitten, bordering on psychotic mode), who it appears is slowly coming apart at the seams, obsessively chasing after a Russian sub. He antagonises meek doctor Balsam for trying to coast along in a cushy job to hide from his failed marriage (not an undeserved criticism, exactly), and refuses to go along with any of his fitness and health ideas (which might actually give Balsam something to do on board!). He constantly barks at new recruit James MacArthur for minor mistakes. He won’t even take on the advice of the ship’s West German advisor (now a NATO ally, of course), the Commodore (a classy Eric Portman), a WWII U-boat specialist who might actually have some damn insight. Meanwhile, Poitier quietly, cynically observes the slowly unravelling madness, occasionally prodding the captain, sensing a scandal in his past. A youngish Wally Cox turns up as the mousy Sonar Technician, who is perhaps the only person the captain truly has any regard for, and even then it’s only because he needs his expertise. Look for a young Donald Sutherland in the opening scene, this was his first feature film role.

 

Naval films or submarine movies don’t tend to be among my favourite kind of films, but here’s one of the better ones. This tense 1965 James B. Harris (who later helmed two James Woods flicks “Fast-Walking” and “Cop”) drama has great performances, interesting characters, interesting points to make, and moments of tension. It really is a solid film. It is not, however, an outstanding one. Harris (mostly a producer of Stanley Kubrick films like “Lolita” and “The Killing”) isn’t a good enough director to keep the tension going throughout, thus the film’s shock ending didn’t quite work for me in the intended way. I was startled to be sure, but mostly because I was starting to get fidgety and had to rewind it, because I actually missed it the first time. Partly my fault perhaps (Like I said, I’m not a fan of these films to begin with), but not entirely.

 

Anyway, Poitier is solid in a dull role (some say he’s the audience’s POV, but I disagree), whilst a well-cast Widmark and particularly Balsam (one of his best-ever roles as the true POV of the audience, flawed as he is) are outstanding. It’s a good film, and if you’re a fan of the genre, you might even consider it even better than that. The screenplay by James Poe is from the novel by Mark Rascovich.

 

Rating: B-