The condemned ship

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Movie
German title The condemned ship
Original title Botany Bay
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Farrow
script Jonathan Latimer
production Joseph Sistrom
for Paramount Pictures
music Franz Waxman
camera Rolf Kästel
cut Alma Macrorie
occupation

The Ship of the Condemned (OT: Botany Bay ) is an American adventure film from 1953 directed by John Farrow . The film adaptation is based on James Norman Halls and Charles Bernard Nordhoff's novel Botany Bay , published in Boston in 1941. Alan Ladd plays a wrongly convicted prisoner who messes with the unscrupulous captain ( James Mason ) of a convict ship. The female lead is occupied by Patricia Medina .

action

In 1787, medical student Hugh Tallant, incarcerated in Newgate Prison in London , is selected for a new program to help tackle the overcrowding of British prisons. He and other prisoners are brought on board the convict ship "Charlotte", which is heading for the penal colony in Botany Bay , New South Wales . There are also female prisoners on the ship, including the charming Sally Munroe. Nick Sabb is also on board, a cunning fence who enjoys special rights on the ship and is already going about his business again. Shortly before the "Charlotte" casts off, Tallant learns that he has been pardoned because the £ 20,000 he stole is part of an inheritance and was actually due to him. He turns to Paul Gilbert, the ship's captain. However, this prevents him from leaving the ship. Tallant tries to escape and jumps overboard. However, since he wears leg irons, he is quickly caught again. As a punishment, he received 25 lashes and then salt in his wounds. Nevertheless, Tallant wants to try again during a stopover in Rio de Janeiro and offers 1000 pounds for help.

When the women are allowed on deck at the Reverend Thynne's intercession, a wild brawl breaks out between them. Captain Gilbert cracks down on them and punishes some of them in an exemplary manner. He asks Sally into his cabin and makes her a clear offer. With reference to Lord Callaham, whom she knows well and to whom she should report precisely how things are going on board, the young woman tries to pull herself out of the affair. When Gilbert wanted to know what the lord was all about, she said casually that he didn't know, that it was his wife Helen's brother and that she was probably behind it. Then she leaves Gilbert's cabin.

When one of the men is found collapsed with black spots on his skin and a man from the crew claims he has the plague , he causes a tumult among the staff and prisoners. However, Tallant states that it is simply scurvy . The captain still reacts indignantly and punishes his subordinate Spencer, whom he has been keeping an eye on for a long time anyway. Shortly thereafter, while he is having dinner with Sally and the Reverend, Gilbert has Spencer and Tallant called over to inform them that he is aware of Tallant's plans to escape and that he suspects that Spencer will help him. Spencer is very indebted to him for the treatment of his arm, he states. Since he assumed that other people were involved in an escape plan, he would not call Rio, but Cape Town and take more weapons on board. This also means a cut in rations for everyone on the ship. Then he orders solitary confinement. Little Nat Garth, who is on board with his mother, has also been illegally taken into solitary confinement by the captain and dies there. Shortly after the child was buried at sea, Nat's mother, Nellie, attacked the captain with a knife. For that he wants to see her hanging. Mrs. Garth herself is injured and is hidden in an empty rum barrel. The captain is supposed to think she escaped with Hugh Tallant. Tallant says they should hide them until the ship is in Botany Bay, then talk to Governor Phillips. He heard that he was a very fair man.

Tallant and Spencer cause confusion on the ship by lighting old rags to escape the general chaos . The "Charlotte" follows them, however, and they are taken prisoner again. Captain Gilbert has devised a particularly bad form of torture for the runaways and orders that Tallant and Spencer be punished by killing them. The team is horrified, but doesn't dare to oppose. The Reverend wants to know what exactly it is. You explain it to him and let him know that at most one out of a hundred men will survive. The captain obviously enjoys repeating the procedure several times. Only the intervention of Sally and the Reverend lets him stop. But it's already too late for Spencer, he's dead.

Then finally you reach Botany Bay. It turns out that Gilbert knows very well that Mrs. Garth is still on board. The governor not only listens to what the captain has to say, but also what everyone else has to say about it. He orders that both Tallant and Nellie Garth will get a fair trial and until then be treated in the same way as any other prisoner who has arrived on the ship. Shortly afterwards, the Governor Tallant said that men like him were needed in the newly built country and offered him an assistant position as a doctor. Gilbert, who in turn is rejected by Sally, knows that she loves Tallant, which furthers his hatred of Tallant. He wants to get rid of him at all costs and forges a plan to bring him to the court of the sea in London for mutiny. A reason to take it back with you! With the governor's hands tied, Tallant has to help himself. It is clear to him that he will not leave the "Charlotte" alive. There is a final fight between Gilbert and his people, and Tallant and his comrades-in-arms, and it looks as if the unscrupulous man will still achieve his goal of seeing Tallant hanging. Then on Gilbert's orders the men make the mistake of attacking the natives and are bombarded with arrows by them. One of these arrows pierced Gilbert's chest.

Tallant discovers the "Charlotte" plague in some people, whereupon Governor Phillips quarantined the ship. Tallant manages to get the disease under control and cure the people. He and all the prisoners on the ship are pardoned and given freedom. Tallant tells Sally that he has the opportunity to return to England, but has decided to stay - with her.

Production and Background

Charles Nordhoff's and James Norman Hall's novel was published in the Saturday Evening Post from September 27 to November 1, 1927 . According to Hollywood Reporter News , Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the story in August 1941 for filming purposes. Nordhoff and Hall already wrote the popular Bounty trilogy .

The filming began in December 1951 and ended in mid-February 1952. First, the situation in the prisons in England in the 18th century is described in detail and King Georges III. Outlines plan to send convicts to New South Wales. “[...] Therefore the prisons were overcrowded and the prisoners were deported to a newly discovered country on the other side of the globe, to New South Wales, which is now known as Australia . On the orders of His Majesty the King of England, George the Third, the first fleet sailed on May 13, 1787. Their destination: Botany Bay . Your passengers: some eight hundred convicts from various prisons in England. "

The film premiered in New York on October 28, 1953 . On October 29, 1953, it started in other cinemas in the USA.

For Alan Ladd this was his last film for Paramount, where he was under contract for years. For Jonathan Harris, a popular television character actor, the film marked his feature film debut.

The figurehead on the bow of the ship is based on the body and face of Jan Sterling .

criticism

The lexicon of international films wrapped its criticism in the following words: "Rough adventures for lovers of bloody sea water and stormy passions."

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times expected a "mutiny on the Bounty," especially since the plot is based on a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, who had also written the story of the mutiny on the Bounty . The captain is just as tyrannical and relentless as the notorious Captain Bligh and James Mason's dense play reflects the dark and malicious mood well. Mr. Mason could well keep up with Charles Laughton's game. Crowthers conclusion is, however, that this film adaptation cannot come close to the 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. The powder is lit, but it does not ignite. That is a shame, because the general climate on board the convict ship is nicely staged and colored by the picturesque play of a few smaller roles .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Botany Bay (1953) Notes at TCM - Turner Classic Movies
  2. ↑ Botany Bay (1953) at Trivia at TCM - Turner Classic Movies
  3. ↑ The Ship of the Condemned. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 19, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Bosley Crowther : Botany Bay (1953) “Botany Bay” Tale of Mutiny With James Mason, Alan Ladd, premieres in Mayfair In: The New York Times, October 30, 1953. Retrieved November 16, 2016.