Time for another Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
We're sailin' on back to the 1930s for a rip-roaring, seafaring yarn, the first cinematic adaptation of the classic historical novel Mutiny on the Bounty. Directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, this version actually incorporates events from the first two books in the Bounty trilogy.
Laughton plays the infamously ruthless Captain William Bligh, whose cruel treatment of his officers and men becomes so intolerable his executive officer Fletcher Christian (Gable) leads the titular mutiny. The Bounty undertakes a daunting two-year voyage from England to Tahiti to transport a supply of breadfruit trees to the West Indies as a cheap food supply. Throughout the voyage Bligh ruthlessly punishes his crew for even the slightest infraction, cuts their food rations while upping his own, and even accuses his own officers of theft when various supply counts are off. Finally the usually even-tempered Christian can take no more, and he exiles Bligh and his loyalists to a lifeboat and sets them adrift, while opting to stay in Tahiti with the islander woman he's fallen for. Complicating the matter is the presence of Christian's friend, midshipman Roger Byam, who out of duty remained loyal to Bligh but stayed on the Bounty because the lifeboat had no more room. Eventually the idealistic Byam agrees to return to England, hoping his loyalty to his captain will save him from the hangman's noose.
Being a 1930s MGM production, this version of the story is shot with grandeur and scope, making great use of real locations, among them the actual island of Tahiti. The cinematography by Arthur Edeson (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Casablanca) is quite picturesque, while also leaning into moody closeups when called for. As with some of his other works, Edeson proved ahead of his time in his use of light, shadow and angle, portending visual tropes later used in film noir.
Gable's performance is capable if a tad distracting. Neither he nor Franchot Tone who plays Byam even attempt to sound British, and since he was already a big star with a signature swagger I was never not aware that I was watching Clark Gable in 18th century garb. But Charles Laughton is quite effective as the loathsome Bligh, his face ever twisted into a better-than-you scowl as he regards his crew as subhuman servants. All three leads were nominated for Best Actor that year, a feat I don't think has ever been duplicated.
Interestingly, Mutiny often feels like a pre-Code film given its social themes of caste warfare and military injustice. The film's opening crawl cites the importance of the Bounty case in changing the inhumane treatment of sailing crewmen to one of mutual respect. Also, like pre-Code films, the villain ultimately faces no comeuppance for his various offenses, remaining a well-respected Naval officer despite the testimony against him.
Even more interestingly, the historical record of these events paint a rather different picture. The real-life Bligh may not have been the monster he's portrayed as in this story, apparently having enacted far less severe punishment on his crew than many of his contemporaries. Likewise, Christian is shown as a fair-minded, gallant officer and romantic, who along with his fellow mutineers and their native Tahitian friends, settles on the island of Pitcairn with the intent of creating a perfect society. In actuality their colony enslaved many of the native men, leading to an eventual uprising that killed most of the mutineers, likely including Christian himself. Novelists Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall took some striking liberties with the historical narrative, to put it mildly.
Still it's a fine story with valid social commentary and the film is an engaging, immersive look at 18th century seafaring.
I give the film ***1/2 out of ****.
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