BOTANY BAY—-in 1787, the British ship Charlotte sets sail from England with a ‘human cargo’ of male & female convicts, bound for servitude in the Far Side of the World, the colony of New South Wales in the vast ‘new’ land of Australia. Severe from the get-go, Captain ‘Paul’ Gilbert (historical license time) has little inclination to kindness toward his charges, and the long voyage (237 days) is marked by brutality.  GILBERT: “I shall be lenient. You chose to escape by the sea and you shall be punished by the sea. Mr. Greene you will make preparations for keelhauling the prisoners.”   MATE: “Captain Gilbert, no man has been keelhauled on an English ship for fifty years.”  GILBERT: “Oh, I don’t think it’s been that long.”    MATE: “Why don’t you just hang us and have done with it?”    GILBERT: “I’ve seen hangings—but never keelhauling.”  *

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, famed for authoring “Mutiny On The Bounty” and its two sequels, wrote the 374-page 1941 novel that served as grog for the script done by Jonathan Latimer, directed by notorious hard case John Farrow as a vehicle for Alan Ladd. Alan’s aboard as American exile ‘Hugh Tallant’, guilty of theft (his own money, so he’s really innocent) and expecting a pardon. Not taxed a tuppence about Tallant’s guilt or innocence, Captain Gilbert (James Mason) sails hours before the pardon will arrive, taking Hugh (a medical student) and other unfortunates—men & women, the seedy and the needy—onto the cruel sea and into a uncertain future. Among them is bold, beautiful scamp ‘Sally’ (Patricia Medina), whose complexion-perfection, bared shoulders and far-as-was-allowed cleavage summons draws the understandable attention of the two leading men diametrically opposite males.

Ladd had a salty sailor hit a few years earlier with Two Years Before The Mast, and was grinding out action matinees like clockwork,  often with about as much animation. This OK entry debuted in London in December of 1952; the US release was then delayed until October of ’53 so as to piggyback off the big success of Ladd’s Shane, which came out in the Spring. A gross of $5,600,000 docked this 55th on the ’52 roster. **

All looks swell in color, thanks to cinematographer John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard; he shot 22 Ladd vehicles); Franz Waxman whipped up a suitably brisk score. Before the ship finally arrives in the title location a good 68 of the 94 minutes are taken up by the voyage itself.  His manner and actions irksome to Mason’s tyrant, Ladd survives 50 lashes with a cat-o-nine tails (healing superfast), and a double-dose of keelhauling (uh, good luck). Once in Oz (HollyOz) the last act is rushed and dampened down on obvious, unconvincing sets. For flavor, four no doubt puzzled koalas and a pair of kangaroos were shipped in from Australia: thence moving on to easy duty at the San Diego Zoo). Adorned with ‘primitive’ hair, shields and spears, a clutch of African-American extras pretend to be Aboriginals.

Ladd’s in standard stoic-mode, so relaxed he’d worry Perry Como. Medina is pretty and animated. They have zip for chemistry. Making the movie worth a look is Mason, who reportedly based his mean commander on the project’s notoriously unpleasant director: a lot of people disliked John Farrow. Leave it to one of cinema’s most enjoyable voices to take a ‘civilized’ threat like “I shall content myself with cautioning you against such liberties in the future” and coat it with silken menace that manages to be droll, defensive, insinuating and dangerous, all in the same aside.

With a ration of broad thesping from the likes of Cedric Hardwicke (walking thru as Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of the colony), Malcolm Lee Beggs, Murray Matheson, Jonathan Harris (debut, 13 years before Lost In Space immortality as ‘Dr. Zachary Smith’), Ben Wright and Sean McClory.

* The historical Thomas (not Paul) Gilbert did indeed captain the Charlotte, ferrying convicts to New South Wales. On the way back he ventured into a group of Central Pacific atolls that took on his name. The Gilberts are today The Republic of Kirabati, in dire straits from rising sea levels. The most famous of the Gilbert’s was/is Tarawa, scene of the vicious 1943 battle. No doubt Capt. Gilbert wasn’t a softie sort, but whether he was as nasty as James Mason’s character is left to the trade winds.

** Rigging rigged? Was there a conference between studio heads, like The Godfather‘s ‘family’ heads setting down territories? 1952 was waterlogged & broadsided, with this vessel one of no less than thirteen seafaring sagas, 14 if you count Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd. Besides Botany Bay, you could ship out (and get flogged for impertinence) with The World In His Arms, The Crimson Pirate, Plymouth Adventure, Against All Flags, Caribbean Gold, Blackbeard The Pirate, Hurricane Smith, At Sword’s Point, Yankee Buccaneer, The Golden Hawk, Captain Pirate (with Medina) and— at the stern end of the veritably convoy—the appropriately titled Mutiny. Which is what reviewers must have been considering.