The famous story of the mutiny on His Majesty's Ship "The Bounty" is given (unjustly) its most famous treatment here. The source material, a book by two authors, may be the cause of the historical inaccuracy displayed in this very overblown, maudlin movie.
Charles Laughton as Capt. Bly is sadly wasted in a cardboard role while a miscast Clark Gable impresses as being as British as baseball. Laughton's performance is of the vaudevillian Oil-Can Harry type, complete with paste-on bushy eyebrows and a constant scowl. He orders so many contemptible punishments -which are NOT on the historical record- it's as if the condescending producers pushed the screenwriter to pad the film with Bly's laughable over-the-top parade of brutalities so the "simple" audience "gets" Bly is a maniac.
The secondary cast of deck hands are a bunch of grandfathers! The movie is slanted pitilessly against Bly, whose reputation has since been rehabilitated among scholars and naval buffs. The movie may have impressed 1930s audiences but even the less than stellar modern remakes are better than this dated and flawed production.
Charles Laughton as Capt. Bly is sadly wasted in a cardboard role while a miscast Clark Gable impresses as being as British as baseball. Laughton's performance is of the vaudevillian Oil-Can Harry type, complete with paste-on bushy eyebrows and a constant scowl. He orders so many contemptible punishments -which are NOT on the historical record- it's as if the condescending producers pushed the screenwriter to pad the film with Bly's laughable over-the-top parade of brutalities so the "simple" audience "gets" Bly is a maniac.
The secondary cast of deck hands are a bunch of grandfathers! The movie is slanted pitilessly against Bly, whose reputation has since been rehabilitated among scholars and naval buffs. The movie may have impressed 1930s audiences but even the less than stellar modern remakes are better than this dated and flawed production.