''In the Wake of the Bounty'' (1933) is an Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel about the 1789

Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set h ...

. It is notable as the screen debut of

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

, playing

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian sei ...

. The film preceded

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

's more famous ''

'', starring

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

and

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

, by two years.

Plot

Chauvel's film uses introductory enacted scenes showing the mutiny, followed by documentary footage, anthropological style, of the mutineers' descendants on

Pitcairn Island Pitcairn Island is the only inhabited island of the Pitcairn Islands, of which many inhabitants are descendants of mutineers of HMS ''Bounty''. Geography The island is of volcanic origin, with a rugged cliff coastline. Unlike many other ...

. Chauvel also used footage of Polynesian women dancers; and film of an underwater shipwreck, filmed with a glass bottomed boat, which he believed was the ''Bounty'' but was probably not. This was Chauvel's first 'talkie' and he had clearly at this stage not yet learned to direct actors: the dialogue is very stiff and amateurish. The use of long sections of documentary footage with a voice over, combined with acted scenes, is similar to the hybrid silent and talking pictures that were produced during the transition to sound. It also represents the combination of interests of the director, and he returned to documentary toward the end of his career with the BBC television series ''Walkabout''. Despite the poorly written dialogue, the documentary sections retain their excellence. A return to enactments at the end of the film, with one scripted modern scene in which a child suffers because of the lack of regular ship visits which could have taken the child to hospital, probably sought to make the film a useful voice for the Pitcairn Island community, who had been generous with their participation. The film mixed re-enactments with documentary, and focused not so much on the

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

itself as on its consequences.Curators notes at Australian Screen
/ref>

Cast

* Mayne Lynton as Lieut. Bligh *

* Victor Gouriet as Michael Byrne – The ''Bountys blind fiddler *

John Warwick John McIntosh Beattie (4 January 1905 – 10 January 1972), known professionally as John Warwick, was an Australian actor, and television dramatist. Early life He was born John McIntosh Beattie (many sources give "Beattle") at Bellingen, New S ...

as Midshipman Young

Production

There was at least one other film of the ''Bounty'' story prior to Chauvel's film, by Australians

Raymond Longford Raymond Longford (born John Walter Hollis Longford, 23 September 18782 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian ...

and

Lottie Lyell Lottie Lyell (born Charlotte Edith Cox, 23 February 1890 – 21 December 1925) was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the ...

, ''

The Mutiny of the Bounty ''The Mutiny of the Bounty'' is a 1916 Australian-New Zealand silent film directed by Raymond Longford about the mutiny aboard . It is the first known cinematic dramatisation of this story and is considered a lost film. Longford claimed it was ...

'' (1916), filmed in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. This film was to be the first of a series of travel adventures to be made by Chauvel for his new company, Expeditionary Films.

Documentary filming

In March 1932, Chauvel left Australia with his wife Elsa and cameraman

Tasman Higgins Tasman Higgins (8 April 1888 – 4 June 1953) was an Australian cinematographer during the early days of the Australian film industry, working for such directors as Charles Chauvel, Raymond Longford, Beaumont Smith, Louise Lovely and Rupert Kath ...

and sailed to

. They were there for three months shooting footage under sometimes extremely dangerous conditions, having to travel around the coast in whaleboats and climb up cliffs on ropes. They then joined a passing boat and went to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

where they spent two months filming more footage. Chauvel and his crew returned to Sydney in September. His unedited footage was confiscated by the Customs Department and viewed by the censors. They requested cuts of scenes of bare-breasted Tahitian dancers. Chauvel protested and succeeded in having the footage released to him uncut, subject to a censorship review after the completion of the film. In October 1932 Chauvel registered a script ''The Story of Pitcairn Island''.

Errol Flynn

The re-enactment scenes were shot on sets built at the studio of

Cinesound Productions Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company, established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres, that covered all facets of the film process, from produ ...

in Bondi. There are different stories how Errol Flynn was cast. According to one, Chauvel saw his picture in an article about a yacht wreck involving Flynn. The most common one is he was discovered by cast member John Warwick. His wage has been variously quoted as £3/10 a week or £10 a week. Flynn would later claim to be descended from ''Bounty'' mutineers.

Censorship issues

When the film was submitted to the

censors Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, they objected to several scenes, including those with bare breasts and depictions of floggings. Chauvel protested that the dancing scenes were supervised by a Methodist clergyman. Chauvel announced he would appeal and was successful in getting the film passed after a compromise version was agreed upon. Chauvel had criticised the censors so much that the Minister for Customs was moved to defend them.

Release

The movie was released by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, whose Australian managing director,

Herc McIntyre Herc McIntyre was head of Universal Pictures in Australia from 1920 until the 1950s. He was important in the career of Charles Chauvel (filmmaker), Charles Chauvel, helping finance several of his films. He was also friends with Lee Robinson (direct ...

, became an important supporter of Chauvel throughout the director's career. It was described as a "middle grade" success at the box office.

Critical

Critical opinion was generally positive about the documentary footage but not the dramatic scenes. According to ''Filmink'' magazine the movie:

Manages the considerable feat of turning one of the great sagas of maritime history into a barely watchable slog. It’s worth seeing today for Flynn completists and stunning footage of Pitcairn Island. The documentary scenes are fascinating, although watching it now with all we know about Pitcairn you can’t help thinking “those girls probably started having sex when they were twelve”. The dramatic sequences are pure amateur hour, like watching a small town community theatre production; Flynn’s physicality is awkward, he is uncomfortable even standing around, and his acting is all over the shop… but you can see why he was cast – he’s already got the profile, the voice, and flashes of the charisma.

Sale of Footage

In 1935, some of the documentary scenes from Chauvel's film were bought by MGM and re-edited into trailers for the 1935 Hollywood film about the mutiny, as well as for two short promotional travelogues, ''Pitcairn Island Today'' (1935) and ''Primitive Pitcairn'' (1936).

References

External links

* * (''this is an "abridged" copy'')
In the Wake of the Bounty at the National Film and Sound Archive

In the Wake of the Bounty
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

''In the Wake of the Bounty''
at Oz Movies
Review of film
at Variety * Charles Chauvel serialised the story of filming the movie �
Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 12Part 13
{{Charles Chauvel 1933 films 1930s adventure drama films Australian adventure drama films Films directed by Charles Chauvel Australian docudrama films Australian black-and-white films Films about HMS Bounty Films shot in the Pitcairn Islands Films shot in Tahiti Films set on ships 1930s Australian films 1930s English-language films