“A stirring 18th-century sea adventure in the big MGM manner, freely adapted from the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall books. The story of H.M.S. Bounty, its brutal Captain Bligh, and the mutineers who fled to Pitcairn Island, has narrative push and a popular theme--the revolt against a tyrant. The movie doesn't fall into the usual trap of setting strong heroes against weak, cowardly villains. As Charles Laughton plays him, the corrupt, sadistic Bligh is the strongest person on the screen; it is not merely that Bligh is a great sailor, capable of remarkable feats of navigation.... He's a great villain--twisted and self-righteous--and you can't laugh him off. He transcends campiness. Clark Gable...is well cast as Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutineers; Gable's Americanness works to his advantage--makes him seem more of a plain, rough-hewn man. Franchot Tone plays the pivotal character--the highborn officer who is taken back to England to stand trial.... (For) the kind of big budget, studio controlled romantic adventure that this is, it's very well done....” Pauline Kael (5001 Nights at the Movies)