Where to watch Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Trivia & production notes

• Clark Gable initially refused the role of Fletcher Christian because it required him to shave off his famous mustache.
• Charles Laughton obtained one of Captain Bligh's original transaction records from a historical tailoring establishment and had a tailor use the archived measurements and material specifications to recreate Bligh's uniforms for the film.
• The film was originally planned to star Wallace Beery as Captain Bligh and Robert Montgomery as Roger Byam, but both actors were replaced before production began.
• Director Frank Lloyd and Irving Thalberg conducted extensive research into 18th-century British naval customs, consulted court-martial transcripts, interviewed descendants of the original Bounty crew, and read Captain William Bligh's own memoir to achieve historical authenticity.
• James Cagney, then in a contract dispute with Warner Bros., appeared as an uncredited extra after encountering director Frank Lloyd, an old friend, while sailing near Catalina Island during filming.
• Second unit camera operator Glenn Strong was killed when a barge capsized off San Miguel Island during filming.
• The ship that played the Bounty was originally built in 1882 as the Lily and was purchased by MGM in 1927 before being converted to appear as the Bounty in 1934.
• Mutiny on the Bounty topped the Film Daily poll of 523 critics as the best film of 1936, despite being released too late in 1935 to qualify for that year's ballot.
• The film earned $2.25 million in the US and Canada and $2.21 million internationally, yielding a profit of $909,000 according to MGM records.
• Pauline Kael praised Charles Laughton's portrayal of Captain Bligh as the strongest character on screen, describing his performance as having a "genuinely horrible mad power."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.