Mutiny on the Bounty was the highest-grossing film of its year, taking in $4.5 million in rentals on a budget of almost $2 million.

When Nicholas Schenck, head of MGM parent company Loew's, Inc., saw a preview of Mutiny on the Bounty, he wired the studio "TELL THALBERG IT IS THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE" (Nicholas Schenck, quoted in Callow).

Attempting to play up the film's few romantic scenes, MGM publicized the picture with the line "A Thousand Hours of Hell for One Moment of Love!"

Mutiny on the Bounty premiered on November 8, 1935, at the Capitol Theater on Broadway. Gable's open-top car was followed by thousands of women as he rode to the equally mobbed theatre.

The real Fletcher Christian was five foot nine and stocky and reputedly suffered from terrible body odor.

The alcoholic ship's doctor is named for the Roman god of wine, Bacchus.

In an effort to break the ice with Charles Laughton, Clark Gable took him to a brothel before filming began. Gable was unaware that his co-star was gay, but, according to Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester, her husband found the gesture "flattering."

Laughton was terrified of the water and seasick during most of the location shooting.

The animosity between Laughton and Clark Gable came to a head when the British actor brought his personal masseur - and lover - along for the location shoot. Every time the two appeared on set together, Gable turned away in disgust.

While sailing his yacht on vacation, James Cagney came upon the production crew. Since director Frank Lloyd was an old friend, he asked him if he could work on the film to make a few extra bucks (he was on suspension from Warner Bros. at the time). Lloyd had him dressed in a naval uniform and used him as an extra for the day.

The young David Niven and future singing star Dick Haymes also worked as extras on Mutiny on the Bounty.

MGM used 3,000 costumes in Mutiny on the Bounty, 600 of them uniforms.

During the scene in which Dr. Bacchus reveals how he lost his leg, the ship rolls so badly it knocks the doctor down, but the brandy bottle on the table next to him never moves until the next shot, when it disappears.

While the Bounty is sailing the Pacific, the latitude and longitude recorded in Captain Bligh's log book are for a point in the Atlantic Ocean.

Contrary to the film version, Captain Bligh was not present on the Pandora when it arrested the men left behind on Tahiti, nor did he attend their courts-martial. By that time, he was already heading a second expedition to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the West Indies.

Gable and Franchot Tone were rumored to have been romantically involved with Movita and Mamo Clark, the women who played their Polynesian companions.

According to Hollywood legend, a shot of one of the sailors pairing off with a Tahitian boy as the other men are enjoying the company of the women was cut by censors.

MGM wanted Gable to go straight from shooting to a two-week cross-country publicity tour, but he said no because it would require him to take along his second wife, Ria Langham Gable. They finally sweetened the offer by throwing in a two-week publicity junket to South America on his own that amounted to a paid vacation. On the ocean voyage back to New York for the premiere of Mutiny on the Bounty, Gable had an affair with Lupe Velez, which caused problems back home, as she was married to fellow MGM star Johnny Weissmuller.

Mutiny on the Bounty was banned in Japan on charges that it promoted revolution.

Laughton enjoyed working with Irving G. Thalberg a great deal, and the feeling appears to have been mutual. Convinced the star could produce as well as act, Thalberg intended to hire him as a producer for the independent company he was planning at the time of his death.

Famous Quotes From MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)

"To the voyage of the Bounty. Still waters of the great golden sea. Flying fish like streaks of silver, and mermaids that sing in the night. The Southern Cross and all the stars on the other side of the world." -- Franchot Tone, as Midshipman Roger Byam, toasting the Bounty before it sails.

"Can you understand this, Mr. Byam? Discipline is the thing. A seaman's a seaman. A captain's a captain. And a midshipman, Sir Joseph or no Sir Joseph, is the lowest form of animal life in the British Navy." -- Charles Laughton, as Captain Bligh, putting Tone, as Midshipman Roger Byam, in his place.

"They expect but one law -- the law of fear." -- Laughton, as Captain Bligh, on his men.

"Mr. Christian!" -- Laughton, as Bligh, delivering his most imitated line.

"The ship's company will remember that I am your captain, your judge and your jury. You do your duty, and we may get along. Whatever happens, you'll do your duty." -- Laughton, to his crew.

"During the recent heavy weather, I've had the opportunity to watch all of you at work on deck and aloft. You don't know wood from canvas! And it seems you don't want to learn! Well, I'll have to give you a lesson." -- Laughton.

"I've never known a better sea captain, but as a man he's a snake. He doesn't punish for discipline. He likes to see a man crawl. Sometimes I'd like to push his poison down his throat!" -- Clark Gable, as Fletcher Christian, on Laughton.

"Now you've given your last command on this ship. We'll be men again if we hang for it!" -- Gable, as Fletcher Christian, deciding it's time for a little mutiny.

"I'll take my chance against the law. You'll take yours against the sea." -- Gable, as Christian, preparing to cast Laughton adrift.

"Casting me aside, 3500 miles from a port of call. You're sending me to my doom, eh? Well, you're wrong, Christian. I'll take this boat if she floats to England, if I must. I'll live to see all of you hanging from the highest yard-arm in the British fleet!" -- Laughton, on being cast adrift by the mutineers.

"We have conquered the sea!" -- Laughton, on surviving the mutiny and his confinement to a rowboat.

"When you're back in England with the fleet again, you'll hear the hue and cry against me. From now on, they'll spell mutiny with my name. I regret that." -- Gable, preparing to leave Tahiti, to Tone, as Byam.

"These men don't ask for comfort. They don't ask for safety...They ask only the freedom that England expects for every man. If one man among you believed that -- one man! -- he could command the fleets of England. He could sweep the seas for England if he called his men to their duty, not by flaying their backs but by lifting their hearts -- their...that's all." -- Tone, addressing his court martial.

Compiled by Frank Miller