Billy Budd (film)

Billy Budd is a 1962 CinemaScope film produced, directed, and cowritten by Peter Ustinov. Adapted from the stage play version of Herman Melvilles short novel Billy Budd, it starred Terence Stamp as Billy Budd, Robert Ryan as John Claggart, and Ustinov as Captain Vere. Stamp was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer. The film was nominated for four BAFTAs.

Though Budd manages to enchant the crew, his attempts at befriending the brutal masteratarms, John Claggart Robert Ryan, are unsuccessful. Claggart is cruel and unrepentant, a man who believes he must control the crew through vicious flogging savaging them before they can prey on him.Claggart orders Squeak Lee Montague to find means of putting Budd on report and to implicate him in a planned mutiny. He then brings his charges to the Captain, Edwin Fairfax Vere Peter Ustinov. Although Claggart has no reason to implicate Budd in the conspiracy, Budd becomes a target because Billy represents everything that Claggart despises humility, innocence, and trust in humanity. Vere summons both Claggart and Budd to his cabin for a private confrontation. When Claggart makes his false charges that Budd is a conspirator, Budd stammers, unable to find the words to respond, and he strikes Claggart, killing him with a single blow. ........

Source: Wikipedia