The Bedford Incident

The Bedford Incident is a 1965 British-American Cold War film starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier, with James MacArthur, Martin Balsam, Wally Cox, and Eric Portman in support. It was directed by James B. Harris, and produced by Harris and Widmark, adapted from a 1963 novel of the same name by Mark Rascovich,^[1] which borrowed from the plot of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.^[2]

The Bedford Incident
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James B. Harris
Screenplay by	James Poe
Based on	The Bedford Incident 1963 novel by Mark Rascovich
Produced by	James B. Harris Richard Widmark
Starring	Richard Widmark Sidney Poitier James MacArthur Martin Balsam Wally Cox Eric Portman
Cinematography	Gilbert Taylor
Edited by	John Jympson
Music by	Gerard Schurmann
Color process	Black and white
Production company	Bedford Productions Ltd.
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	11 October 1965 (1965-10-11) (Connecticut) 14 October 1965 (1965-10-14) (London) 2 November 1965 (1965-11-02) (New York City)
Running time	102 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English

At the time The Bedford Incident was produced, Harris was best known as the producer of three of Stanley Kubrick's films. When Kubrick decided to make Dr. Strangelove as a satirical black comedy rather than a dramatic thriller, Harris still wanted to create a serious nuclear confrontation film; with Kubrick's blessing and advice, he did.^{[citation needed][3][dead link][4][failed verification][better source needed][5][dead link]}

Plot

It is 1963, in the height of the Cold War. The United States Navy destroyer USS Bedford is steaming in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. It is under the strict command of controversial Captain Eric Finlander, an imperious martinet and relentless taskmaster. A popular civilian photojournalist, Ben Munceford, and the ship's new doctor, Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, are dropped aboard by helicopter. Already there are Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke, a top U-boat ace of World War II and current Bundesmarine NATO naval advisor, and Ensign Ralston, an inexperienced young officer on edge from henpecking by Finlander for small errors.

When the Bedford detects a Soviet submarine just off the coast of Greenland. Finlander mercilessly stalks his prey as it goes from international waters into Greenland's territorial waters, seeking safety under an ice shelf. Sonar contact is lost in a field of icebergs. Knowing the diesel-powered sub will have to surface within 24 hours to replenish its air and run its engines to recharge its batteries, he plays a waiting game. The crew never complains, but Potter is concerned that maintaining so high level of sustained vigilance is dangerous and suggests measures for easing it, all of which Finlander dismisses out of hand.

Munceford is ostensibly aboard to photograph life on a Navy destroyer, but his real interest is the outspoken Finlander, who stood out in the U.S. military for publicly insisting more force had been called for in the recent Cuban Missile Crisis. When Munceford asks Finlander if this is why, though he gets results and has a loyal crew, he was recently passed over for promotion to admiral, Finlander becomes hostile and accuses Munceford of misinterpreting the facts. When challenged how far he would go in waging his personal Cold War he responds that he would go "all the way" to save his country, though after calming down he insists "all the way" doesn't really mean "all the way", and that his current dogged and even aggressive pursuit is just a deterrent.

He seeks permission from his upline command to force the Soviet sub to surface and reveal itself in violation of international law. He is twice told to simply wait. During a round-the-clock general quarters it gives him the slip. Frustration gives way to fury, and obsession to mania.

Finally the Soviet submarine is spotted by the Bedford's lookouts when it pokes its snorkel above the surface, safe again in international waters. It had not been detected running its diesels by the single sonarman Finlander relies on, who became overcome by exhaustion-induced delusions. Schrepke reminds Finlander that his orders are just to escort the sub out of Greenland's waters, which he has aleady done, but Finlander sends a message ordering the sub to surface and identify itself. When the order is ignored, Finlander runs over its snorkel. Schrepke, who has the mindset of the fox and not the hunter, protests that Finlander has cornered the sub (that cannot effectively flee while surfaced, being slower than the destroyer and an easy target for its numerous weapons) and is forcing it to fight. Crazed, Finlander orders Ralston to arm the ASROC rocket-propelled anti-submarine torpedo system. He reassures the anxious Munceford and Schrepke that he will not fire first, but "if he fires one, I'll fire one" back. The fatigued Ralston just hears "fire one" and launches the rocket.

The ASROC warhead arches its way skyward then descends by parachute right upon the submarine, completely destroying it. Everyone is horrified. However, upon detecting the rocket ignition the sub had launched a spread of four nuclear torpedoes at the Bedford. Although Finlander orders evasive maneuvers and countermeasures, everyone knows the situation is likely hopeless. Finlander silently leaves the bridge, followed by Munceford, hectoring him to do more. The captain looks away sheepishly, and the Bedford and her crew are vaporized in an atomic blast.

Cast

• Richard Widmark as Captain Eric Finlander
• Sidney Poitier as Ben Munceford
• James MacArthur as Ensign Ralston
• Martin Balsam as Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, M.D.
• Wally Cox as Seaman Merlin Queffle (Sonar)
• Eric Portman as Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke, Bundesmarine
• Michael Kane as Commander Allison, Executive Officer (Bridge)
• Gary Cockrell as Lieutenant Bascombe (C.I.C.)
• Phil Brown as Chief Hospitalman McKinley (Sick Bay)
• Brian Davies as Lieutenant Beckman (Communications)
• Paul Carson as Seaman 1st Class Williams (Communications)
• Edward Bishop as Lieutenant Hacker (Communications)
• Colin Maitland as Seaman Jones (Bridge)
• Roy Stephens as Seaman 2nd Class (C.I.C.)
• George Roubicek as Lieutenant Berger (C.I.C.)
• Donald Sutherland as Hospitalman Nerney (Sick Bay)

Production

The novel on which the film is based reflects several real Cold War incidents between the NATO and Warsaw Pact navies, including one in 1957 when the USS Gudgeon, a submarine, was caught in Soviet waters and chased out to sea by Soviet warships. Although none of these real-life incidents ended as catastrophically as the Bedford incident, the story illustrated many of the fears of the time.

The screenplay by James Poe follows the novel fairly closely, until its ending. In the novel, the Soviet submarine does not fire back at the Bedford before being destroyed. The shocked Finlander receives word of his promotion to admiral. Commodore Schrepke, realising the incident will spark World War III, sabotages one of the remaining ASROCs and destroys the ship. Munceford, the sole survivor, is found by Novosibirsk, the submarine's mothership.

A Farragut class destroyer, the model for USS Bedford

The opening shots of the fictitious guided missile destroyer USS Bedford were not of a United States Navy Farragut-class destroyer but a British Type 15 frigate, HMS Wakeful, as the Department of Defense objected to how the Navy was portrayed in the screenplay and declined to cooperate with the film's production. Interior scenes were filmed in HMS Troubridge, another Type 15 frigate. The class's novel, forward-sloping bridge windows can be seen in some shots, as can British military equipment, such as a rack of Lee-Enfield rifles. The rest was filmed, and the film itself produced, at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom. There a large model of the Bedford was filmed in a tank. The vessel portraying a Soviet intelligence ship masquerading as a fishing trawler has the name "Novo Sibursk", written on the hull at the bow in the Latin alphabet (rather than the Russian language's Cyrillic alphabet), where "Novosibirsk" would have been a more accurate rendering even in the wrong alphabet.

Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "the whole thing transcends plausibility [...] because of its gross exaggeration of a highly improbable episode. [...] the blame for this climactic blooper must be lodged against James Poe, who wrote the script from a novel by Mark Rascovich."^[2]

Actual Cold War incident

In October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet submarine B-59 was pursued in the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S. Navy. When the diesel-powered Soviet vessel failed to surface, destroyers began dropping training depth charges. Unlike in The Bedford Incident, the Americans were not aware that the B-59 was armed with a T-5 nuclear torpedo. As the B-59 had been out of contact with Moscow for several days and was running too deep to monitor civilian radio broadcasts, the Soviet captain thought World War III might have started and wanted to launch the weapon, but he was overruled by his flotilla commander, Vasili Arkhipov, who was using the sub as his command vessel. After an argument, it was agreed that the submarine would surface and await orders from Moscow. It was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union that the existence of the T-5 torpedo and how close the world came to nuclear conflict became known.^[6]

See also

• On the Beach – a 1959 film about the last American submarine following a global nuclear war.
• Fail Safe – a 1964 film concerning the accidental launch of a nuclear first strike by the USAF
• Dr Strangelove – a 1964 black comedy film satire about nuclear war.