Stato d'allarme

The Bedford Incident is a Cold War Navy story with the captain of the destroyer, USS Bedford playing a game of cat and mouse with a Soviet submarine which has strayed inside the territorial waters of Greenland.

These kinds of things happened quite a lot during those tension filled days of the Cold War. Fortunately neither we or the Soviets had a captain like Richard Widmark who is determined to push the envelope all the way if he can.

On the voyage that this game of nuclear tag takes place, Widmark is saddled with a pair of outsiders and he doesn't like it at all. First is Sidney Poitier a photojournalist who constantly keeps getting underfoot as Widmark sees it. The second is a medical officer Martin Balsam whom he didn't request.

Widmark is a frightening man. He keeps everything and everyone on the ship so tense he's even got Eric Portman concerned. Portman is a NATO adviser and a former German U-Boat commander. As Poitier says, 'Hitler's Navy to which he's corrected, 'no Admiral Doenitz's Navy.

Under his command, young ensign James MacArthur is afraid to breathe wrong and sonar man Wally Cox suffers a nervous breakdown. The lack of relief for both of these guys has tragic results.

The Bedford Incident remains a curiously forgotten film while such work as Dr. Strangelove and Failsafe people remember better. That's not right, The Bedford Incident is in some respects superior to both of those classics. It's about the strain of command as much as anything else and it's also about the dangers of a truculent attitude in the person with the command.

Hopefully this forgotten classic will get more recognition one day.

You can't watch this movie without being impressed by the performance of Richard Widmark. He was absolutely outstanding as Captain Eric Finlander - a totally obsessed Cold Warrior in command of an American warship off the coast of Greenland. Having detected a Soviet submarine in the same area, Finlander becomes fixated on forcing the sub to surface. It might be "peacetime" (even if it is the Cold war) but Finlander wants to prove to the world that the Soviets were where they shouldn't be. The best moment of the movie probably came when the West German commodore and former U-Boat commander in World War II (played by Eric Portman) aboard Finlander's vessel the Bedford described Finlander as "frightening." That pretty much summed things up - and Widmark captured the description perfectly. There's a strong supporting cast in this (it includes Sidney Poitier as a reporter on board and Martin Balsam as the Bedford's new medical officer) but it's Widmark's movie from start to finish.

This would be best described as a tense and suspenseful movie but there are scattered times throughout when you start to wonder if this is all worth it. It is, after all, depicting the COLD War. Nothing's really going to happen as a result of all this. It looks like an interesting depiction of a cat and mouse game between the Bedford and the sub, but really it comes across as more of a psychological study of Finlander himself and you do wonder if the tension and suspense are going to lead up to unrealized potential and leave the viewer frustrated. They don't.

The end of this movie is quite shocking, and captures what the fears of a lot of people during the Cold War were - the fears of a nuclear accident or even an accidental nuclear war. Those fears were very real in people in the era, and this movie plays on those fears. The end actually is quite stunning. It grows out of the psychological study - Finlander having ridden a young officer (played by James MacArthur) so hard that he was so afraid of doing something wrong that you almost knew he would have to do something wrong. He does. This is a very well done film. (7/10)

Channel surfing, I stumbled across this movie on TCM and must say, "Wow!" As a child during the Cold War, I remember the tension between America and Russia, which this film captures well -- at least from the U.S. perspective. Richard Widmark's performance tops that of Humphrey Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny," strawberries or not. Sidney Poitier fits his role like a glove -- the scene between Poitier and Widmark in the latter's cabin is splendidly acted, allowing the viewer to get inside Widmark's head while not giving away too much -- and Martin Balsam gives another example why he was one of the screen's greatest supporting actors. It's better than "Fail Safe," sparing us Henry Fonda's hysterics as president. The tension builds aboard ship until a breathtaking climax. One worth watching.

Having served aboard this very class of ship during the late 60's and early 70's, I can attest that the events, from a technical standpoint, are frighteningly real. The Queeg-like personality of the Captain is a bit of a stretch, but the events in the movie come right out of the battle plans of the Navy (at the time).

The tension of the situation is palpable. Even at the time, the outcome was in doubt, but the outcome was believable. It still is.

Richard Widmark is a determined naval ship captain in "The Bedford Incident," which also stars Sidney Poitier, Eric Portman, Martin Balsam, James Macarthur, and Wally Cox. This is quite a different meeting from the one Widmark and Poitier had in "No Way Out," where Widmark is a bigot who lashes out at Poitier. Poitier in this film plays a journalist, and there is never any mention of his color. This is not only remarkable but marvelous. Martin Balsam is the ship's new doctor. Poitier and Balsam board ship together and pick up almost immediately that there is a tension on board and that the men are intimidated by their cold, tough captain.

The Bedford's assignment is to patrol for Russian subs and ships.

When a submarine is detected in the area, the captain seems to want to take the matter too far. Portman, as a German adviser, disagrees with him.

The role of the captain, Finlander, is the type of role normally associated with Widmark, and he is excellent as an uncompromising man reminiscent of Captain Queeg. Poitier turns in a stellar performance, which really builds as he becomes more and more concerned about the captain and the potential international situation. Martin Balsam is very good, actually providing, along with Wally Cox, a little comic relief.

The scenes showing the gray sea and huge icebergs might be dated now, given what film technology is capable of, but they are no less evocative of the atmosphere. After the buildup of drama and tension, the last moments of the film are incredibly exciting - staggering even. And you'll do what I did - just sit and stare at the words "The End." A very good film.