In the Wake of the Bounty

Errol Flynn’s debut. Barely a narrative feature versus a travelog covering Pitcairn, a south seas island settled by survivors of the HMS Bounty. The film opens with a pub patron recounting the tale of the Bounty mutiny. Flynn plays Fletcher Christian in these flashbacks. He’s stiff and awkward, standing ramrod straight and mistaking volume for emotion as he recites his lines without the faintest trace of charisma. Flynn’s performance amounts to maybe ten minutes of footage, with the film devoting much of the flashback to shots of topless Tahitian women sliding into pools of water.