"
Billy Budd" is an episode of the Canadian anthology series
General Motors Theatre (known as
Encounter in the US). The live telecast, which
aired May 3rd 1955, starred a host of familiar names, including
Basil Rathbone as Captain Edward Fairfax "Starry" Vere of the British naval warship
HMS Indomitable,
Douglas Campbell as the
Master-at-Arms Claggart (note: some sites, including
imdb.com incorrectly credit Rathbone as playing Claggart),
Patrick Macnee as officer Lt. Seymore and William Shatner as a young seaman.
The story is set in 1798 amidst the background of British concerns at militarism stemming from
revolution-era France and is an adaptation of an
unfinished novella of the same name by
Herman Melville. There are evidently some minor differences and truncations between that work and this TV adaptation (for example, the ship is called the
Bellipotent in correct later drafts of the book), but the stories are essentially the same.
Young seaman Billy Budd transfers from the homeward bound merchant vessel
Rights-of-Man onto the
Indomitable as it monitors waters off the southern English coast.
His indomitably (the names in
Billy Budd often seem to underscore traits and emotions - Captain Vere: virtue, truth...) happy and innocent spirit and all round enthusiasm brings Budd the immediate friendship of his fellow seamen.
That is, all except the paranoid and sadistic Master-at-Arms Claggart. There's a goodness in Budd that evidently threatens Claggart's world-view - one of ruthless discipline that has no place for such souls as young Budd.
Captain Vere, meanwhile, runs a firm but fair ship and is respected by his crew.
He too comes to admire Budd's enthusiasm. The ship could use some cheering up, as the British Navy has been rocked by a
series of mutinies, and tempers have become frayed.
Budd is soon promoted to the post of
foretopman...
But all is not well on the good ship. Rumors of Claggart's brutality have reached the captain. Should a firm hand be welcomed to prevent the risk of further mutinies or is the Master-at-Arms a potential dangerous tyrant?
Claggart's obsession with Budd escalates. Surely someone so inherently good and decent must harbor a secret, destructive agenda, lest Claggart's comfortably miserable world be shaken to its core by a person so unlike himself.
The situation comes to a head when Budd catches an officer about to commit an act of supreme mutiny: attempting to kill Claggart.
Budd, eternally decent, disarms his shipmate in order to save Claggart's life.
Claggart is correct that mutinies against him are being hatched...
But he then decides, without any evidence at all, that the man to blame is none other than the innocent Budd - the man who saved his life.
Claggart invents a tale of mutineering against the lad, who, suffering from a speech impediment, is unable to defend himself properly. Claggart's lies and Budd's sense of honor lead him to momentarily snap and strike the ship's head of security.
But Budd's brief temper fit results in some very serious consequences: Claggart is dead...
The Captain convenes an extraordinary
drumhead court-martial to determine how to deal with Budd's murderous act.
An amoral and universally loathed man who falsely accused a good man is dead. Can't Budd's deed just be forgotten?
Or must the law be respected above all else?
At stake is Billy Budd's life, as he faces the death penalty for the murder of a superior officer. What will the court decide?
And that's where we'll leave the story...
So what to make of all this? On the negative side, this 1955 production of "Billy Budd" is a little clunky, with occasional wobbly, awkward camera-work, less-than-polished sound and actors sometimes slightly flubbing their lines - no doubt a result of the fact that this was live TV in its very earliest days. Should television compete with (and try to be more like) theater or cinema? In the mid 1950s, these answers were still being addressed, in part through trial and error...
But asides from these technical flaws, we found "Billy Budd" to be thoroughly enjoyable. A very simple story focused on the exploration of consequences and the epic dilemmas that extraordinary events can bring about - very, very
Star Trek-like! At play is the notion of
vigilantism - if a person breaks the law in order to correct an injustice and do an ultimate good, should the breaking of the law be overlooked? Or is the law the law - period. That is the very simple conundrum presented by Melville's story.
It's no surprise to find that
Billy Budd has been adapted
numerous times for both the small and large screens. And this 1955 effort, one of the earliest of the screen adaptations, largely succeeds in conveying the strength of this epic tale.
Rathbone and Campbell give particularly strong performances, while young Bill Shatner, with his faux Irish accent (contrasting with the otherwise authentically British cast), doesn't quite match the nuanced expressiveness of his illustrious, and at this point far more experienced, on-screen colleagues.
At times, Billy Budd's (
Finnegan-esque) perkiness seems just a little affected and strained, perhaps partly due to the restrictive shackles of Bill Shatner having to perform with a heavy accent. That said, the actor certainly has a memorable and distinct on-screen presence (deliberately designed to contrast as much as possible with his weary, gloomy shipmates) and for a young performer, getting noticed is what it's all about. It's not, we think, a dull of poor performance at all - and it is most definitely, unarguably Shatner!
Let's move swiftly to the hair...
The initial thought that we will try to put into words is one many of you readers are likely having too, glancing at Bill Shatner's hair in "Billy Budd". Wow! We've explored toupees, we've explored that brief period in the late 1950s when Bill Shatner was trying his best to spruce up his ever-thinning hair - but who would have ever imagined this?
A major performance in which Bill Shatner has (real) thick, long, curly hair flailing in the wind and not a toupee or careful combing technique in sight! And there's more yet. This is the only example we have of Bill Shatner altering the color of not only the sides but also the top of his own real hair. At this point, he still had plenty and experiments such as bleaching evidently presented no problems at all!
In one scene, Bill Shatner's hair is ruffled considerably, and he even runs his hand through it with the kind of careless abandon that would be unthinkable in only a few short years...
Here's the clip:
The ruffling in this scene is caused by a rather energetic fight in which, at one point, Budd's opponent actually places his foot on Bill Shatner's hair!:
Comparing this fight to Captain Kirk's escapades in
Star Trek, one can see a key difference. In
Star Trek, free flowing fights could only go so far before hairsylists had to jump in and correct excessive imperfections in Bill Shatner's lace...
...but in "Billy Budd" there are no such concerns evident. There's an almost ballet-like freedom visible in Bill Shatner as he fights in the scene - no concerns about hair being dislodged, no need to protect the toupee from a fall, no concerns about lids flipping, bald patches showing, lace lines peeling. In that sense, what we have here is truly remarkable in its uniqueness.
But as thick as Bill Shatner's hair is in "Billy Budd", there are
some very slight clues on display that suggest the hair may not be on as firm a footing as the young actor may have hoped for (in light of the fact that his
father was bald).
Even at this point, the hair at the sides of the twenty-four-year-old actor's head is noticeably thicker than that at the top. It's all there still...
...but sometimes the shape gives off unmistakable signals of what is to come:
Yet, despite such warning signs - ones that may be easy to spot with hindsight - what we can surely savor most in this 1955 TV drama is a major Bill Shatner performance in which matters of the the toupee or of concealing thinning are entirely absent. That in itself makes "Billy Budd" a "must-see".
Sadly, "Billy Budd" isn't available to purchase commercially, but a
time-coded copy can be found on-line (note: we've undertaken significant sound enhancement for the clips in our review). A simple, yet powerful and entertaining story aided by a strong cast - we certainly recommend it.
Note: We know we have readers in Japan, and are thoughts and prayers are with you and all the people of your country as you cope with the tragedy unfolding there...
