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, which borrowed from the plot of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Plot

It is 1963, at 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.