Billy Budd

Herman Melville had been writing poetry for thirty years when he returned to fiction with "Billy Budd" in late 1888. Still unfinished when he died in 1891, it was forgotten. Melville's biographer accidentally stumbled upon it when going through a trunk of Melville's papers in his granddaughter's New Jersey house in 1919. Melville's widow worked to help complete it, and it was finally published in 1924. Over the years, other unsatisfactory versions were published, but it wasn't until Melville's original notes were found that the definitive version was ultimately published in 1962. Coincidentally, Sir Peter Ustinov's movie version was released the same year.

When Billy Budd first comes onboard the British ship, he witnesses a sailor being flogged and is told by everyone that no one even knows what the sailor had done. This would not be the case in the Royal Navy, since at all floggings the Captain was required to read in front of the crew the specific Article of War which had been violated and then state the number of lashes for the offense.

As the cast is listed onscreen, the actors are heard stating their characters' names and ranks.

West German theatrical version was cut by approx. five minutes.

Featured in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)