His penalties for minor offenses are the judgments of a maniac. Brought to the Bounty, he is discovered to be already dead from his previous floggings, but Bligh, observing the cold letter of the regulations, insists that the corpse receive the appointed forty lashes in full view of his officers and men. We get the full horror of his personality early in the film when a seaman, convicted of striking an officer, is ordered to be lashed on every vessel in the fleet. Laughton's performance as the incredible Bligh is a fascinating and almost unbearable portrait of a sadist who took rapturous delight in watching men in pain. Condemned with the rest, Byam, in the film, is pardoned after an eloquent speech in which he informs the court-martial of the conditions which drove Christian and the crew to mutiny.Mr. Midshipman Byam and several other loyal seamen who were forced to accompany the rebels were returned to England for trial. In the photoplay, though not in fact, Bligh commands the second British ship which pursues the mutineers and is wrecked in the futile search. Bligh and eighteen loyal men were set adrift with the ship's launch in mid-Pacific, while the triumphant mutineers put back to Tahiti.Miraculously Bligh took his open boat 3,600 miles across the ocean to the Dutch East Indies, a feat that is almost unparalleled for skill and courage in nautical annals. Discharging her cargo at Tahiti, the Bounty was sailing for home when Christian, the second in command, led the mutinous sailors and seized the ship. The spirit of revolt grew among both officers and men during the voyage as Bligh's mania for discipline increased in fury. Bounty, commanded by the able but intolerably savage Lieutenant Bligh, left England bound for Tahiti. This is a crowded and fascinating canvas, but the film tends to become slack and dissipate some of its terrifying power because of the sheer burden it Imposes on the spectator of watching the screen for more than two hours.The history of the celebrated naval case will not suffer if I summarize it briefly. If the work has a flaw, it stems from Metro's characteristic prodigality. For all its great length, this is just about the perfect adventure picture.The film concentrates on the first two volumes of the trilogy, "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Men Against the Sea," and touches only slightly on the fate of the mutineers as they prepare to face permanent exile with their Tahitian women on the uncharted Pitcairn's Island. Frank Lloyd, well remembered for "The Sea Hawk" and "Cavalcade," has performed a distinguished job of direction. As the sadistic master of the Bounty, the barbarous madman who was half god and half devil, Charles Laughton has the perfect roƓle, and he plays it perfectly. The Nordhoff-Hall trilogy was, of course, born to be filmed, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has given it the kind of production a great story deserves. Grim, brutal, sturdily romantic, made out of horror and desperate courage, it is as savagely exciting and rousingly dramatic a photoplay as has come out of Hollywood in recent years. Bounty is magnificently transferred to the screen in "Mutiny on the Bounty," which opened at the Capitol Theatre yesterday. Beautifully illustrated, this classic tale will capture children's interest and spark their imagination inspiring a lifelong love of literature and reading.The weird and wonderful history of H. According to most accounts, the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific island of Tahiti and repelled by the harsh treatment from their captain. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh. Do they make it? Mutiny on theBounty details a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. Find out what happens when the Captain and his men are put off the Bounty in a small rowboat with little food or water. Enjoy the idyllic island life and decide for yourself if the men on the Bounty should have mutinied against Captain Bligh. Sail to the South Seas the long way, around the Cape of Good Hope and through the Indian Ocean. Flounder in a hurricane as you try to round Cape Horn.
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