I guess I'm going through the wonderful new thread listing and finding all the classics people requested but never responded to. Anyway...

The original Mutiny on the Bounty is a great, stirring epic. MGMs production sheen, with the studio near the height of its powers, is all over this. Charles Laughton, the grand ham himself, walks away with the movie. But Gable matches him step-for-step; this is one of his best performances. I actually haven't seen this in quite a few years. I have to go back and fix that.

A-


The Mutiny on the Bounty of 1935 is a historically somewhat inaccurate and obviously biased, yet very powerful and well-made picture. I must say I was surprised by how much a sea-based flick like this one made in 1935 could actually excite me. I mean, this is coming from someone who thought that Master and Coimmander was fairly boring, so I expected something similar of this one. However, Mutiny on the Bounty turned out to be a far more interesting and exciting film. The sequences of the ships on the sea are astounding tech-wise for the time they were made. The waves and sinking scenes still look pretty good nowadays, over 70 years after the completion of the movie.

What really propels this film to being a great, instead of a merely good one is the acting. No susprise this ended up being the only movie in the history of the Academy to snatch 3 nominations for Best Actor (and it ended up losing all of them) - however that was helped by the fact that a Best Supporting Actor category just didn't exist at that time. The acting here is splendid. I wasn't really blown away by Franchot Tone as Byam, but Gable and Laughton just set the screen on fire with their excellent interplay. In particular Laughton deserved to win the Oscar for his role as the brutal, yet brilliant Captain Bligh. I can't remember the last time I despised a character in a movie as much as his (but in a good way). Definitely one of the best villains in the history of cinema.

I haven't seen the film's competitors yet, but it's still sad that it only ended up winning Best Picture, but nothing else, especially conmsidering the high technical standard of the film. As I said, there are historical inaccuracies about the way the mutiny and events preceding it are portrayed and some things remain rather unclear (as to why so many seaman on board of the Bounty actually oppose the mutiny if you consider the inhuman treatman by Bligh), but all in all, it is a very satisfying, technically competent and superbly acted motion picture that deserves to be remembered nowadays.

i'm normally not a fan of formulaic big budget movies from the good old studio system, but i quite enjoyed this. clark gable gives his usual clark gable performance, his acting is more charismatic than anything else, i think he was the sean connery of his time. still a fine performance. laughton was just terrific, i think his best scene is when the doctor dies because of the captains cruelty and one man is ready to attack him, reaching for his knife, but bligh just silently walks to him and stares at him until the man is completely intimidated and gives up his idea. and i have to disagree with dr. lecter about franchot tone's performance, i think he was at least as good als gable.

B

I've seen a film like this, but not this one. It was about a ship where there's a problem and the captain is taken over etc etc., it sounds very much like this, but it had proper ships, war boats, not pirate looking ships and it didn't star Clark Gable. It was b/w, though. I think it was made around 1940-1958 period, no later as I would have known the stars' faces. Can anybody help me out?

perhaps the caine mutiny, starring humphrey bogart as the paranoid captain? that one was not b/w, though.

I haven't laughed that hard in ages, as after reading the above snippet - - thank-you!


As to the movie - - I haven't seen it in ages, but I must have seen it half a dozen times back in the day. It's a great film version of a much greater novel (make time to read it, if you haven't already - - you're in for a treat!) and still the best movie adaptation (though the Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson versions both have their charms).

Yes, that was it. Thanks. I could have sword it was in b/w, ah nevermind, that's the one. Cheers

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