Gli ammutinati dell'Atlantico

Watch this for Angela Lansbury burning up the screen. Mark Stevens and Patric Knowles are fine but once she appears the film takes off. Dymytryk's direction whips along and the narrative is sufficiently novel to hold the attention. Lansbury is really a noir villainess on the high seas - using her man to get to the cash. One warning - the print shown on Matinée movies is grim - scratched, out of focus and the technicolor down to almost two strip. The film is an independent production - King Brothers - which means that it is a bit of a rarity and may account for the quality of the print. Is there a decent neg or print anywhere or is this it?

Where to begin with this bottom of the barrel adventure? Dmytryk was always an inconsistent director able to produce fine films like "The Caine Mutiny" and "Broken Lance" as well as high gloss trash such as "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Where Love Has Gone" and slug like this. Strictly paying the rent actors give lackluster performances. Angela looks great and gives the film's best performance but why oh why is she wearing a 1950's evening dress on a warship in 1812? Painfully obvious that this was filmed on the cheap in a studio tank with low lighting to cover the sets shortcomings. A shame since there are not a lot a films about this time period so a wasted opportunity like this is doubly disappointing.

From a story written by Hollister Noble and directed by Edward Dmytryic is this feature film called "Mutiny. " Mark Stevens plays Capt. James Marshall and Patric Knowles is second in command as Capt.Ben Waldrid. Both men are signed on to escort a French shipment of Gold bullion to America during the war of 1812. However, even though it's a secret, the rest of the scurvy crew gets wind of it and with the help of a Greedy, selfish former lover plan on diverting it to their own pockets. Interestingly enough the heavy is played by Angela Lansbury, who seeks to convince her former romantic lover to betray the commander and sail off into the sunset. The rest of the scheming crew feels the same way and as the movie progresses everyone becomes hell bent on securing the gold for themselves. Aside from the fact, the script is fragmentary and shallow, the film is hampered with poor lighting, dark backgrounds and dreadful scenes. Were it not for cast members like Gene Evans, Rhys Williams and Clayton Moore, the urge to leave the theater hangs on to the end. Recommend to anyone who wants to see Lansbury playing to her evil side. ***

Edward Dmytryk's first film in Technicolor is unlikely to have been a milestone he took pride in, grateful as he doubtless was simply for the work after having been jailed as one of the Hollywood Ten.

Several other talented people were also slumming in this reasonably ambitious King Brothers potboiler (notably Angela Lansbury as a treacherous, high maintenance femme fatale), enhanced by a Dimitri Tiomkin score and atmospheric photography by Ernest Laszlo (which goes some way towards mitigating the stationary painted clouds that ruin most of the scenes on deck).

The script by Philip Yordan (assuming he's signing his own work this time) is actually pretty witty & imaginative; and the similarity of the ignominious fate suffered by one character and incorporation into the plot of an early submersible suggests he knew both his Shakespeare and his military history.

Though about average overall, "Mutiny" has some strengths, with an interesting period/adventure setting and a couple of good performances. The story includes some good action sequences that help make up for the less interesting stretches. The shipboard atmosphere generally works well, but the lighting and photography are so dark (at least in the print as it now seems to be available) that a lot of details get lost or obscured.

The setup has Mark Stevens as the captain of a ship carrying out a special mission during the War of 1812, with Patric Knowles as a disgraced captain who is now serving as second in command, Angela Lansbury as Knowles's greedy and domineering wife, and a mutinous gun crew looking for a way to turn things to their own advantage. It's interesting in taking the historical setting as the backdrop to what becomes a largely private battle of nerves and wills. The circumstances of the war do come into play often enough to make the setting relevant.

Knowles is effective in portraying his complicated, somewhat indecisive character, Lansbury gets the kind of role that she used to perform quite believably, and Rhys Williams and Gene Evans are good as the ringleaders of the mutineers. Stevens is solid, but sometimes slightly lacking in energy, as the captain.

The finale is the best part of the movie, and it is set up nicely, leading to a three-way showdown with plenty of suspense and action, plus an interesting depiction of a primitive submarine. It's good enough to make up for an overall lack of consistency in much of the rest of the movie. In the earlier parts, especially, the script sometimes takes too long to establish simple points, and it also has some stretches in which some weak dialogue weighs it down. So its by no means perfect, but it does have enough to fill its relatively short running time with a generally interesting story.