In The Wake of the Bounty 1933

Australian film releases: The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906-10 | Australian film posters 1906-71 | Strike 1912 | Strike 1912 AI | For the Term of His Natural Life 1927 | Metropolis 1928 | In the Wake of the Bounty 1933 | Captain Thunderbolt 1951 | Picnic at Hanging Rock 1975 |

Newspaper advertisement.

1. Introduction

Errol Flynn

In the Wake of the Bounty was a docudrama produced by Charles Chauvel and is notable for two reasons: firstly, its place in the history of Australian film making, and secondly, as the first screen appearance of Tasmanian and future Hollywood actor Errol Flynn (1909-1959). It was the second Australian film to cover this icon episode in which the crew of the HMS Bounty, under Fletcher Christian, mutinied against the infamous Captain Bligh. The first was the 5 reel (100 minutes) long Mutiny of the Bounty (1916), and this was followed by a number of Hollywood productions, including Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), starring Charles Laughton and Clarke Gable; Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard; and The Bounty (1984), starring Australian Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. 

Robert Dodd, Fletcher Christian and the mutineers set Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 others adrift, 28 April 1789, aquatint on paper, 1790.

A YouTube copy of the original 1933 film is linked in below. Whilst it runs for the original 66 minutes, this unfortunately bares a large logo on the lower right and is presented in widescreen. Another copy is available running 65 minutes, with normal framing and no watermark interference. A third copy is also available which is the second copy colourised.

In the Wake of the Bounty (widescreen, plus watermark), Classic Hollywood Movies, YouTube, duration: 66 minutes. Without watermark here (65 minutes); and colourized (59 minutes) here.

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2. Production details

Title: In the Wake of the Bounty

Format: Documentary plus dramatic elements

Production Company: Expeditionary Films

Production dates: March 1932 - January 1933

Scenario: Charles Chauvel

Photography: Tasman Higgins

Monologue: Arthur Greenaway

Film Editor: William Shepard

Musical Director: Lionel Hart

Sound Engineers: Arthur Smith and Clive Cross

Sound: Cinesound Recording

Actors:

• Lieut. Bligh - Mayne Lynton
• Fletcher Christian - Errol Flynn, paid £10/week.
• Michael Byrne - Victor Couriet (The Bounty's Blind Fiddler)
• Mayne Lynton - Captain Bligh
• Midshipman Young - John Warwick

Duration: 66 minutes

Budget: £6.500.

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Newspaper advertisement, Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney, 1933.

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3. Chronology

1932

* March - Chauvel and his wife Elsa, plus cameraman Tasman Higgins sailed to Pitcairn Island.

* September - Chauvel and team return to Sydney. Footage was confiscated by Customs, but returned.

* Studios were built at Cinesound, Bondi, and footage shot. Actors included Errol Flynn.

Newspaper advertisement, Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney, 1933.

1933

* January - February - The Commonwealth Film Censor orders three cuts in the Tahiti episode (bare-breasted swimming and dancing "mischievous brown girls") and one in the Australian footage (a flogging). Chauvel protested and the cuts were eventually reinstated.

* 15 March - The film is released at the Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney, by Universal Pictures.

* 3 June - Theatre De Luxe, Melbourne.

1935

* MGM purchases rights to the film and it is re-edited to form two travelogues: Pitcairn Island Today (1935) and Primitive Pitcairn (1936).

* MGM releases Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Clarke Gable as Fletcher Christian.

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Newspaper advertisement, Prince Edward Theatre, Sydney, 1933.

 4. Sydney Morning Herald articles 1933

 During March 2023 two articles on In the Wake of the Bounty from 1933 were republished, as follows:

New Films. 

"In the Wake of the Bounty."

20 March 1933

Mr. Charles Chauvel’s film, “In the Wake of the Bounty,” contains some exquisite views of the South Seas. Not even in “Moana,” “Tabu,” and “White Shadows,” which are regarded as setting the world standard in this sphere, will one find more lovely photography, more perfect realisation of the lights and shadows in tropical landscape. The cameraman (Mr. Tasman Higgins) has realised the value of motion as a means of filling out the flatness of screen perspective into a more stereoscopic effect, and the gliding of the camera to and fro across land and water gives a splendid feeling of depth and distance.

Since the motive on which the scenic effects are strung is the mutiny on board the Bounty, and the settlement of the survivors on Pitcairn Island, Tahiti and Pitcairn form the locations. There are pictures of mist floating over ragged mountain peaks; of yachts mirrored in palm-fringed waters; and some remarkable glimpses of heavy seas dashing against a reef. A foreword to the film says that it does not claim to be a drama. The narrative about the Bounty serves only as a unifying influence, and a means of explaining the origin of the Pitcairn settlement. As a matter of fact, the bursts of dramatic action are distinctly the weakest part of the film. In these scenes, which take place mainly in the ship’s focscle and the captain’s cabin, the lighting is defective, the make-up indifferent, and the acting of a stilted, artificial order. The only players who carry much conviction are Mr. Mayne Lynton as Captain Bligh, a peppery, obstinate old martinet, very much on the lines of the same personage grown older in Doris Egerton Jones’ stage play, “Governor Bligh,” and Mr. John Warwick, as one of the ship’s company.

Productions from abroad have so accustomed audiences to the mobile use of the camera in interior scenes that these of Mr. Chauvel’s seem uncomfortably static. However, things might have been much worse. At least, the dialogue is straightforward, and calculated to appeal to intelligent people; which is more than one can say for some other Australian productions which have come to the screen during the last year or two.

In arranging spoken comment to accompany the non-dramatic portions of the film Mr. Chauvel has shown excellent judgment. The diction is always good; but not affected. The voice does not run on and on and on, as though the speaker were taking part in an endurance contest; but allows pauses for reflection at times when the visual action can tell its own story. The descriptive matter itself, apart from the manner of its delivery, is admirable in the clearness of its exposition. The film as a whole, too, has been most carefully and ingeniously planned. The dramatic episode at the end, unlike the earlier attempts at drama, is genuinely moving; and, from a visual point of view, has a dynamic quality which allows it to rank with the finest overseas work. “In the Wake of the Bounty” was screened on Wednesday at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Film Censorship.

Methods Criticised.

Producers' Difficulties.

 24 March 1933

The Commonwealth film censor was criticised by speakers at a meeting of the Film Society last night. Mr. Charles Chauvel, the producer of “In the Wake of the Bounty,” described the passages in that film which the censor at first deleted and which would have remained out of the film if he and his colleagues had not engaged In a six-months’ struggle with the authorities. Australia was being flooded with salacious sex-dramas, he said, yet Australian producers were being compelled to choose only stories of a simple, witless type. The censor had at first forbidden the scene in “In the Wake of the Bounty” that depicted the flogging of the sailor Quintal. It would be impossible to depict scenes from the early history of Australia without offending the censor, who had the power of deciding what films should be sent out of, as well as brought into, Australia. An Australian producer was not allowed to show droughts, bushfires, or probably, floods.

Professor W. J. Dakin said that it was unfortunate that the public was so lackadaisical in the matter. If there had to be a censor, he should be a man who had travelled, and who was widely read. M. Meuret, lecturer in French at the University, spoke on the conditions of film productions in France, and described two films “Mädchen in Uniform” and “The Blue Light” which are among the most notable of recent German productions.

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5. References

From the Archives, 1933: In the Wake of the Bounty, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 March 2023. 

Pike, Andrew and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1998.

Reade, Eric, Australian Silent Film Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1970, 192p.

Wikipedia, Errol Flynn, Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026.

-----, In the Wake of the Bounty, Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026.

-----, Mutiny of the Bounty (1916), Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026. Stars: George Cross and Wilton Power. Produced by Raymond Langford.

-----, Mutiny on the Bounty 28 April 1789, Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026. 

-----, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026. Stars: Charles Laughton and Clarke Gable.

-----, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026. Stars: Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard.

----- The Bounty (1984), Wikipedia, accessed 30 May 2026. Stars: Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.

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Last updated: 30 May 2026

Michael Organ, Australia