Based on the life of an actual soldier who claimed to have fought at Bunker Hill, Israel Potter is unique among Herman Melville's books: a novel in the guise of a biography. In telling the story of Israel Potter's fall from Revolutionary War hero to peddler on the streets of London, where he obtained a livelihood by crying "Old Chairs to Mend," Melville alternated between invented scenes and historical episodes, granting cameos to such famous men of the era as Benjamin Franklin (Potter may have been his secret courier) and John Paul Jones, and providing a portrait of the American Revolution as the rollicking adventure and violent series of events that it really was.
Name | Type | Role | |
---|---|---|---|
Herman Melville | Writer | ||
Claude Piéplu | Guest Star | ||
Jacques Grello | Guest Star | ||
François Chaumette | Guest Star | ||
Jocelyne Loiseau | Guest Star | ||
Pierre Mondy | Guest Star | ||
Jacques Seiler | Guest Star | ||
Marcel Cravenne | Director |