Picture 8: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Clark Gable appears yet again in a starring role. What an amazing 2 years this chap is having!

In this 1935 flick we are transported to Portsmouth in 1787 and the British navy is sailing the seven seas and trading all over the world. Interestingly this film is set just 182 years after Shakespeare’s death and 18 years before the Battle of Trafalgar. A group of sailors are assembled in a Portsmouth tavern to sail to Tahiti on a 2 year mission involving plants and the slave trade.

The captain is a talented sailor but an awful tyrant and understandably his inferiors (including Lieutenant Clark Gable) become increasingly miserable, starving, thirsty and well… mutinous. What follows is a whirlwind tour of pacific islands, lifeboats, Polynesian brides, topless naval officers, betrayal, court martial, compassion from the admiralty and ultimately a sea change in British naval officer culture that lasts to this day - it is based on a true story +/- some major details.

This best picture is well worth a viewing and could go nicely with a trip around the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich where these officers of variable moral standing were trained.

Reflections on the human condition:

1. No one is 100% evil.

2. A leader will only succeed if he puts the wellbeing of his men first.

3. The mind can make a heaven out of hell and a hell out of heaven.

Rating 8/10

Oscar Best Picture Rankings:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

2. Wings (1928)

3. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

4. Cimarron (1931)

5. Grand Hotel (1932)

6. It Happened One Night (1934)

7. Cavalcade (1933)

8. The Broadway Melody (1929)