This version of the famous nautical adventure from Lewis Milestone is a memorable successor to the Oscar-winning 1935 movie. Milestone deserves credit for surviving laborious re-shoots and difficulties caused by Marlon Brando's temperament: "I was as near to a nervous breakdown as I've ever been," said the veteran director, who made his name with All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. Though controversial, Brando's performance as Fletcher Christian is impressive as he moves from arrogant fop to gallant hero, despite his somewhat strangulated English accent. Trevor Howard is fine as the sadistic Captain Bligh, but the Tahiti interlude is a sequence definitely to be missed.

The Bounty leaves Portsmouth in 1787. Its destination: to sail to Tahiti and load bread-fruit. Captain Bligh will do anything to get there as fast as possible, using any means to keep up a strict discipline. When they arrive at Tahiti, it is like a paradise for the crew, something completely different than the living hell aboard the ship. On the way back to England, officer Fletcher Christian becomes the leader of a mutiny.