Mutiny on the Bounty, 1962

March 18, 2026

1950s-60s Filmography

Mutiny On The Bounty, 1962, as Fletcher Christian
Cast: Trevor Howard, Richard Harris, Hugh Griffith, Taritatumi Teriipaia
Director: Lewis Milestone

Rating

Factoid

After turning down an offer from producer Sam Spiegel to star in Lawrence of Arabia – “I’ll be damned if I’l’ spend two years of my life out in the desert on some f camel!” – he chose to play Fletcher Christian in MGM’s lavish remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Joining Marlon was Taritatum a Taripaiam (Tarita), a local girl who was discovered by Marlon and cast as his love interest in the picture.
Brando followed the footsteps of Clark Gable in this remake of the 1935 version which starred Gable and Charles Laughton.
From the start Bounty proved to be a jinxed production. Carol Reed had originally been signed to direct, but he left the project after several months because of disagreements with Trevor Howard (who played Captiain Bligh) and a small army of script doctors.
In response to on-set noise Brando began wearing earplugs even during filming!
For the first time since becoming a star, Brando felt completely at ease among crowds of people. Most of the islanders were unaware of his celebrity and he was able to do what he pleased without being hounded by press or fans.
Marlon loved the location so much that he eventually purchased an entire island (atoll) of Tetiaroa.
Brando’s new tranquil life in Tahiti was rooted in his deepening relationship with his costar Tarita. In an odd coincidence, Tarita was playing the same role opposite Brando that Movita (his x-wife) had potrayed opposite Clark gable in the earlier version of the Bounty!
Mutiny on the Bounty cost MGM more than $18 million and Brando was wrongly blamed for most of the budget overrun. He was chastised in a nasty Saturday Evening Post article, “The Mutiny of Marlon Brando”, which accused him of causing virtually all of film’s problems – financial and otherwise. MGM did little to discourage this criticism – the studio was in desperate need of a scape goat. Incidentally, Fox was taking a similar position with Cleopatra, blaming Elizabeth Taylor for all that was wrong with that elephantine production.
Marlon defended himself to writer Vernon Scott, “I’ll tell you why [the film] cost so much. They started shooting without a script…the studio sent the entire cast and crew on location to Tahiti, where it cost them $32,000 a day – and were out there six months all totaled! The ship cost $750,000 to build and caught fire five times. Then there was the director problem, which had nothing to do with me. The entire first three months of filming under Carol Reed was junked for a whole new concept for [Lewis] Milestone. That cost a few dollars too.”
Mutiny on the Bounty was a box office dud. The picture did, however, go on to receive an Academy Award nomination as the year’s best film.