''Botany Bay'' is a 1953 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

and starring Alan Ladd, James Mason and

Patricia Medina Patricia Paz Maria Medina (19 July 1919 – 28 April 2012) was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films ''Phantom of the Rue Morgue'' (1954) and ''Mr. Arkadin'' (1955). Early life Medina was the daughter of Laure ...

. It was based on a novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. While the story includes characters loosely based on real figures (Gilbert and Phillips) and the ship ''Charlotte'', it is a largely fictional telling of the First Fleet's arrival in Australia in 1788.

Plot

In 1787 a group of prisoners lodged in Newgate Jail receive notice that their death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. They are boarded onto the and joined by a smaller group of female prisoners. Gilbert, the captain, offers one pretty female prisoner free run of the ship on certain conditions. One prisoner, Tallant, admits guilt but is expecting a pardon to arrive within hours. The captain declines to wait for word of the pardon and Tallant jumps overboard. When caught he is sentenced to 50 lashes with a cat-o-nine-tails. Recovering below deck he offers £1000 to any person who agrees to help him. As Tallant has medical training he is offered a position as ship's surgeon, which also gives him free run of the ship. Gilbert is cruel to prisoners and crew alike. A young boy in a small cell dies of hypothermia when the cell floods with cold water. He is buried at sea. His mother tries to stab the captain and he shoots her. Tallant and the second mate escape in a row boat but are found. They are sentenced to be keel hauled. The crew carries out the sentence but both prisoners survive. The captain is upset that they are living, so orders a second haul. Spencer dies on the second haul. Tallant survives. Rev. Thynne threatens to inform Governor Philip of the barbarity when they arrive at

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...

. The ship sails via

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

(this would have been very unusual, the Africa route was the norm). Their first port of call is

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. However, they later discuss being off the coast of Africa. The journey has taken 237 days. Governor Phillip refuses to hang Tallant and sentences him to hard labour in the penal colony in

. However Gilbert demands that Tallant be charged with mutiny. Despite the fact that the Mutiny Act 1703 only has provisions to punish members of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

(which Tallant clearly is not, even were the Charlotte a Royal Navy ship) Governor Phillip raises no objection to this. Tallant escapes with a small group of men, and tracks down Gilbert at Stillwater Cove. He demands the Charlotte, but he and his men are surrounded by British troops and recaptured. As a further twist the group is surrounded by aborigines. Gilbert is hit by a spear and killed before the British fire power pushes them back. As the prisoners now have muskets they take charge again. Rather than escape Tallant returns to Botany Bay.

Cast

* Alan Ladd as Hugh Tallant * James Mason as Captain Paul Gilbert *

as Sally *

Sir Cedric Hardwicke Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and ...

as Governor Arthur Phillip *

Jonathan Harris Jonathan Harris (born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin, November 6, 1914 – November 3, 2002) was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and film appearances, as well as voiceovers. Two of his best-known roles w ...

as Tom Oakly *

Malcolm Lee Beggs Malcolm Lee Beggs (1907 – December 10, 1956) was an American stage, television and film actor. Biography The son of actor/director Lee Beggs and stage actress Doris Singleton, he began performing professionally on the stage at the age of 5. H ...

as Nick Sabb * Murray Matheson as Rev. Mortimer Thynne * Anita Sharp-Bolster as Moll Cudlip (billed as Anita Bolster) *

Noel Drayton Noel Drayton (October 7, 1913 – December 7, 1981) was an actor who remains perhaps best known for playing supporting roles in Hollywood films like ''Elephant Walk'', ''The Court Jester'', '' Plymouth Adventure'' and ''Botany Bay'' during the ...

as first mate Spencer * Ben Wright as deck officer Green *

Skelton Knaggs Skelton Barnaby Knaggs (27 June 1911 – 30 April 1955) was an English stage actor who also appeared in films, especially in horror films. Biography Knaggs was born in the Hillsborough district of Sheffield, England. Knaggs moved to Lond ...

prisoner at Newgate

Production

There was film interest in the book even before its publication because of the success of ''Mutiny on the Bounty'', also from a novel by Nordhoff and Hall. The film rights were sold in July 1940 for a reported $50,000 and was intended to be a vehicle for

Joel McCrea Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...

. In 1941

expressed interest in playing the lead. The film was originally planned to be made in 1946, starring Ray Milland with location shooting in Australia. However these plans were delayed when Paramount became concerned about the cost. The project was re-activated in 1951 as a vehicle for Alan Ladd. Four koalas and two kangaroos were flown from Australia to appear in the film. The koalas were the first to be exported from Australia in 25 years and were later transferred to

San Diego Zoo The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing 4000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. Its parent organization, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, is a p ...

. The only Australian-born members of the cast were Murray Matheson and Brandon Toomey. Aboriginal characters were played by African-American actors.

Historical basis

A ship called , under the command of Captain Thomas Gilbert, sailed with the First Fleet. However, none of the events attributed to "Captain Paul Gilbert" in the film occurred in reality.

References

External links

''Botany Bay'' at IMDB

''Botany Bay''
at

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...

Complete novel
at Project Gutenberg {{John Farrow 1950s adventure drama films 1953 films American adventure drama films 1950s English-language films Films scored by Franz Waxman Films based on American novels Films directed by John Farrow Films set in New South Wales Films set in 1787 Paramount Pictures films Seafaring films 1953 drama films 1950s American films