Hell Ship Mutiny | |
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Directed by | |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Sam Leavitt |
Edited by | Elmo Williams |
Music by | |
Production company | Lovina Productions |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 66 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Hell Ship Mutiny is a 1957 American South Seas adventure film directed by Lee Sholem and Elmo Williams starring Jon Hall who also produced and narrated the film. [1] It is a compilation of a 1955 unsold television pilot Knight of the South Seas. [2] [3] Hall's father Felix Locher plays the role of a native chief. [4]
This film is now in the public domain.
Captain Jim Knight, and his crew Roxy, Tula, and a chimp named Salty sail the South Seas in search of adventure. They discover a criminal gang has taken over a small island, forcing the native pearl divers to dive beyond safe limits.
After capturing the three-man gang, Knight takes them to Tahiti for trial where the men escape and force Knight to sail them to New Zealand. Knight subdues them again but this time a minor French magistrate is sent to the island to try them there. The magistrate joins the criminals when a native boy locates the wreck of a lost ship containing a Burmese king's treasure.
In October 1955 Jon Hall, who had just finished starring in Ramar of the Jungle , announced he would play a sea captain in a new TV series Knight of the South Seas. It would be made by his own production company, Lovina. [5] In December Hedda Hopper reported that Hall had already shot footage in the south seas and signed his first co-star, John Carradine. [6]
Filming started 15 December 1955 at Fox Western Avenue studios. [7] Two episodes were filmed.
In May 1956 Hall announced the series would premiere in Tahiti, where Hall grew up. [8]
The pilot was not picked up so Hall combined the episodes for a feature film. [9]
The Monthly Film Bulletin said "apart from the fights and good underwater shots this juvenile adventure film sadly lacks vitality." [10]
The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in the ship's open launch. The reasons behind the mutiny are still debated. Bligh and his crew stopped for supplies on Tofua, losing a man to natives. Bligh navigated more than 3,500 nautical miles in the launch to reach safety and began the process of bringing the mutineers to justice. The mutineers variously settled on Tahiti or on Pitcairn Island.
Fletcher Christian was an English sailor who led the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, during which he seized command of the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty from Lieutenant William Bligh.
James Norman Hall was an American writer best known for The Bounty Trilogy, three historical novels he wrote with Charles Nordhoff: Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men Against the Sea (1934) and Pitcairn's Island (1934). During World War I, Hall had the distinction of serving in the militaries of three Western allies: Great Britain as an infantryman, and then France and the United States as an aviator. His awards include the Croix de Guerre, the Médaille Militaire, the Légion d'Honneur and the Distinguished Service Cross. After the war, Hall spent much of his life on the island of Tahiti, where he and Nordhoff wrote a number of successful adventure books, many adapted for film. He was also the father of Conrad L. Hall, regarded as one of the ten most influential cinematographers in film history.
The Hurricane is a 1937 film set in the South Seas, directed by John Ford and produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions, about a Polynesian who is unjustly imprisoned. The climax features a "hurricane" generated through special effects. It stars Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall, with Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Thomas Mitchell, Raymond Massey, John Carradine, and Jerome Cowan. James Norman Hall, Jon Hall's uncle, co-wrote the novel of the same name on which The Hurricane is based.
Jon Hall was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, and later when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six films he made with Maria Montez. He was also known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960s sci-fi films in his later years, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).
Bella Darvi was a Polish film actress and stage performer who was active in France and the United States.
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, based on the 1932 Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel Mutiny on the Bounty. Despite historical inaccuracies, the film was a huge box office success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1935 and one of MGM's biggest hits of the 1930s. The film received a leading eight nominations at the 8th Academy Awards, winning only Best Picture.
Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 American Technicolor epic historical drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, and Richard Harris. The screenplay was written by Charles Lederer, based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Bronisław Kaper composed the score.
The Story of Mankind is a 1957 American dark fantasy film, loosely based on the nonfiction book The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik Willem van Loon. The film was directed and coproduced by Irwin Allen and released by Warner Bros.
All the Brothers Were Valiant is a 1953 Technicolor adventure drama film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Richard Thorpe. The film's screenplay was written by Harry Brown and based on the 1919 novel All the Brothers Were Valiant by Ben Ames Williams. The music score was led by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography by George J. Folsey.
The Sea Chase is a 1955 World War II drama film starring John Wayne and Lana Turner, and featuring David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, and Tab Hunter. It was directed by John Farrow from a screenplay by James Warner Bellah and John Twist based on the novel of the same name by Andrew Geer. The plot is a nautical cat and mouse adventure, with Wayne determined to get his freighter home to Germany during the opening months of World War II, chased relentlessly across the Pacific then Atlantic oceans by the Australian and then British navies.
Harry Wilson was a British character actor who appeared in over 300 films from 1928 to 1965 and proudly proclaimed himself "Hollywood's ugliest man".
Bon Voyage! is a 1962 American comedy film directed by James Neilson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran as the Willard family on a European holiday.
Fred Graham was an American actor and stuntman who performed in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.
HMS Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was a British merchant ship that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the British West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, an incident now popularly known as the Mutiny on the Bounty. The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island in the Southern Pacific Ocean in 1790. An American adventurer helped land several remains of Bounty in 1957.
Seven Cities of Gold is a 1955 American historical adventure film directed by Robert D. Webb and starring Richard Egan, Anthony Quinn and Michael Rennie, filmed in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. It tells the story of the eighteenth-century Franciscan priest, Father Junípero Serra and the founding of the first missions in what is now California. The screenplay is based on the 1951 novel The Nine Days of Father Serra by Isabelle Gibson Ziegler. The tag line of the film was "This is the story of the making ...and the forging...of California...when men chose gold or God...the sword or the Cross".
Paul Marion was an American actor, notable for roles in To Have and Have Not (1944), Mysterious Doctor Satan and Captain Midnight.
Charles Bernard Nordhoff was an American novelist and traveler, born in England. Nordhoff is perhaps best known for The Bounty Trilogy, three historical novels he wrote with James Norman Hall: Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men Against the Sea (1934) and Pitcairn's Island (1934). During World War I, he served as a driver in the Ambulance Corps as well as an aviator in both the French Air Force's Lafayette Flying Corps and the United States Army Air Service, reaching the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Nordhoff spent much of his life on the island of Tahiti, where he and Hall wrote a number of successful adventure books, many adapted for film.
Wolf Larsen is a 1958 American adventure film directed by Harmon Jones and starring Barry Sullivan and Peter Graves.
Felix Maurice Locher, known as Felix Locher was a Swiss actor and inventor and father of actor Jon Hall.