The trial of Billy Budd, sailor

Teaching Film Custodians classroom film of excerpts from the 1962 Allied Artists release feature film, “Billy Budd”, based on the novella "Billy Budd Foretopman" written by Herman Melville. Billy Budd, pressed into service aboard a man-of-war in the Royal Navy in 1787, becomes an object of hatred for the master-at-arms, John Claggert. When unjustly accused by Claggert of being part of a planned mutiny, Billy strikes him, causing a fall which unintentionally kills him. Believing that Billy is innocent, Captain Vere and the officers face a moral dilemna due to Admiralty regulations, which demand a court martial to sentence to death by hanging the innocent seaman who was provoked to strike the villainous master-at-arms.