A drama with Angela Lansbury as an adventuress, very typecast as a heartless girl, and by far the best of the cast, as she gives her role a very believable glimmer of sleaze; M. Stevens plays the righteous captain, and he's handsome and reasonably at ease, Knowles plays the renegade, and he's quite withered and outworn, drained, , his character doesn't as much choose honor, as he chooses to get rid of the poison ivy, and this newfound disgust should of been more gradual. Ankrum has a bit part. But for '52, when this movie has been released, this was certainly a 2nd rate cast. Fortunately, its plot is very unconventional and surprising, being written by Yordan, and the story is intriguing without being very deep, and as often with this director there's no depth of the sentiments, there are a few Z movies from the '40s and '50s, with seamen, that have much more dramatic depth, and in Dmytryk's movie the misfire was perhaps Knowles' unrequited passion, the director seems to have lacked sense for its human dimension, he was a mediocre craftsman who had learned the basics of the Hollywoodian show, and he misfires here like elsewhere.
Angela Lansbury has a great scene as she joins the pirates, when they discover the gold. She's billed 2nd and makes the most of her role, her strength being obvious in how she dominates the movie and makes it suit her performance. Her character is concomitantly spectral and freakish, like from 'The Master of Ballantrae'.
Gene Evans does a good role as a foment-er of mutiny. These are movie pirates, but colorful enough, check out the one who gets promoted 2nd mate after the mutiny. While Knowles is credible as a tormented guy, gloomy and unprincipled, he wasn't the best choice for this movie; if his character has the requisite bitterness, it's not only that I would of liked him otherwise, but it leaves an aftertaste of mediocrity. The renegade's awakening is somewhat subdued; but perhaps the player achieves a kind of resigned, unappealing dignity. Given the result, the director seems to haven't been kin on the sea dimension, and also to have been uninspired or mediocre with the drama; neglecting one, and clumsy with the other.
This is a refined and stylish movie, written by Yordan, scored by Tiomkin, directed by Dmytryk, who was artistically an old-believer; I write about him and his movies now and then. I think he gained his fame more by political option, than by his craft, which was fair but very conventional.
For some time, one might expect a dirty dozen story, with the assembling of a crew of scoundrels who are thus offered a 2nd chance, yet the story is very grim and quite sordid, and the sea doesn't really play any special role, it's just a sleazy tale well filmed; it's not the lavish epic promised by the poster, but a tale of betrayal and violence, with insufficiently deepened characters and a plot that's surprising because it contradicts the usual stock events and hints at sleaze and has a certain violence and rough characters, with their bare vehemence (and the motley crew is uniformly made of wicked hoodlums), not because it's inventive or striking. The sea isn't more than the set for the drama, until the use of the submersible, which occasioned the best scene of the movie; I return to the poster, with its promise of a sea epic, the film does look beautiful, but as a creepy drama, in another genre altogether . But the director, whatever one might think of him, isn't everything, and especially not in a genre movie, and 'Mutiny' does give pleasure, and the director's craft should also be acknowledged, I liked this movie, and I believe it valuable for what it is, and it was refreshing to see the actress (the only woman in the movie, save for three partying girls at the beginning) in one of her early roles. She looks spectral, unearthly, spooky, in those uncanny evening scenes. But she gains her authority by overplaying what must of been a schematically written character: a shocking one, but without dramatic resources.
I enjoyed the underwater photography of the submersible. It was very pleasing for the mind, and I would of liked it to be way longer.
There's a sword-fight scene towards the denouement.
Dmytryk, though a radical in his politics, was very conservative and even old-fashioned in his movie-making.
Angela Lansbury has a great scene as she joins the pirates, when they discover the gold. She's billed 2nd and makes the most of her role, her strength being obvious in how she dominates the movie and makes it suit her performance. Her character is concomitantly spectral and freakish, like from 'The Master of Ballantrae'.
Gene Evans does a good role as a foment-er of mutiny. These are movie pirates, but colorful enough, check out the one who gets promoted 2nd mate after the mutiny. While Knowles is credible as a tormented guy, gloomy and unprincipled, he wasn't the best choice for this movie; if his character has the requisite bitterness, it's not only that I would of liked him otherwise, but it leaves an aftertaste of mediocrity. The renegade's awakening is somewhat subdued; but perhaps the player achieves a kind of resigned, unappealing dignity. Given the result, the director seems to haven't been kin on the sea dimension, and also to have been uninspired or mediocre with the drama; neglecting one, and clumsy with the other.
This is a refined and stylish movie, written by Yordan, scored by Tiomkin, directed by Dmytryk, who was artistically an old-believer; I write about him and his movies now and then. I think he gained his fame more by political option, than by his craft, which was fair but very conventional.
For some time, one might expect a dirty dozen story, with the assembling of a crew of scoundrels who are thus offered a 2nd chance, yet the story is very grim and quite sordid, and the sea doesn't really play any special role, it's just a sleazy tale well filmed; it's not the lavish epic promised by the poster, but a tale of betrayal and violence, with insufficiently deepened characters and a plot that's surprising because it contradicts the usual stock events and hints at sleaze and has a certain violence and rough characters, with their bare vehemence (and the motley crew is uniformly made of wicked hoodlums), not because it's inventive or striking. The sea isn't more than the set for the drama, until the use of the submersible, which occasioned the best scene of the movie; I return to the poster, with its promise of a sea epic, the film does look beautiful, but as a creepy drama, in another genre altogether . But the director, whatever one might think of him, isn't everything, and especially not in a genre movie, and 'Mutiny' does give pleasure, and the director's craft should also be acknowledged, I liked this movie, and I believe it valuable for what it is, and it was refreshing to see the actress (the only woman in the movie, save for three partying girls at the beginning) in one of her early roles. She looks spectral, unearthly, spooky, in those uncanny evening scenes. But she gains her authority by overplaying what must of been a schematically written character: a shocking one, but without dramatic resources.
I enjoyed the underwater photography of the submersible. It was very pleasing for the mind, and I would of liked it to be way longer.
There's a sword-fight scene towards the denouement.
Dmytryk, though a radical in his politics, was very conservative and even old-fashioned in his movie-making.