The Mutiny of the Elsinore

"Mutiny on the Elsinore" is a film that really shocked me. It was a relatively low budget British film that had fallen into the public domain....not exactly a recipe for a cracking good film. But, despite this, the film was exceptionally well made and unique.

When the film begins, the folks on a four-masted sailing ship are waiting for a passenger. Inexplicably, a writer, Jack Pethurst (Paul Lukas), wanted to be aboard and write about life on one of these old boats. At first, he's horrified by how brutal the first mate is. But, slowly he begins to see that this brutality might me necessary as there are many ingredients for a potential mutiny--such as the lazy communist-like seaman, the crazed Irishman bent on murder, an actual murderer hiding among the crew and more.

The most amazing thing about this film is seeing the Hungarian actor, Lukas, playing a bit of an action hero! It's also amazing to see him, for a time, as the Captain of the vessel!! How could this be? Well, see the film. As for the film itself, it's very exciting, has some wonderful acting and is just darn good entertainment.

This little-know film is based on a novel by Jack London entitled CAPTAIN WALTER SUMMERS, which had previously been made into a silent film in 1920 as THE MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE, and filmed also in French in 1936 as LES MUTINÉS DE L'ELSENEUR, with Jean Murat in the lead role. In this film, Paul Lukas plays the lead, Jack Pathurst (not Pethurst as mistakenly listed in IMDb), a journalist taking a long journey on a sailing ship in order to write an account of it for the public. Lucas was really too old at 46 to be the ardent suitor of the ship's captain's daughter, but he did very well in the role anyway. The only other reviewer of this film has made a mistake in saying that there is no indication in the dialogue as to the destination of the ship. In fact, it is clearly stated that it is bound for 'Frisco' (San Francisco). The daughter of the ship's captain is played in sprightly mode by a very good young actress named Kathleen Kelly, who made 22 films between 1932 and 1939 and then vanished from our radar entirely, so that little is known of her except that she was born in 1912. This film's extensive use of a genuine old sailing ship of huge size (three main masts) and its detailed depiction of how the men cling on while furling and unfurling those gigantic sails is exciting enough in itself to merit watching this film. But the story is also a very good adventure yarn, involving a mutiny on board, the murder of the captain, people being thrown overboard, people climbing up and down ventilation pipes, a crazed sailor who goes mad onboard, a criminal fleeing justice by enlisting in the crew, and a host of dubious characters. Paul Lukas, as usual, plays a noble fellow who is always in his jacket and tie even when climbing up towards the crow's nest with Kathleen Kelly. And when push comes to shove, he is a good shot and kills plenty of rebellious sailors as they rampage and riot. There is certainly no shortage of action in this film. It is very well directed by Roy Lockwood, who only directed three feature films in his career. According to information on IMDb, his daughter and son-in-law tracked down an archival print of this film and had it transferred onto video tape in 1997 to celebrate his 90th birthday, which is how we have it available on a DVD now. I wish he were still around so that I could ask him how on earth (or should I say how at sea) he ever got those shots high up in the rigging of that ship.

Paul Lukas is a writer, traveling on an old clipper, looking for details on his next book. When a long-fugitive criminal shoots captain Conway Dixon and then incites half the crew to mutiny, it's up to Lukas to rally the reluctant loyal crew, often brutally, winning the heart of captain's daughter Kathleen Kelly in the process.

It's based on the Jack London book with a script by Captain Walter Summers. It's a talky thing for the first two-thirds, redeemed only by shots of the ship at sea. They were lifted from the French version of the movie. Several ambitious directors tried to shoot at sea when the movie called for it during the Studio era, and they were usually disastrous. The French version of this movie encountered storms at sea, but pulled some great shots that help make the movie.

Lockwood didn't direct many movies. He spent most of career in radio broadcasting in New York, writing and directing. But he also wrote extensively for YACHTING magazine. After he retired, he moved to Maine for the sailing. He died in 2002 at the age of 94.

This was one of Jack London's last novels, his last sea novel and one of his best novels. Naturally it was slightly remade for the screen, but on the whole the rendering of it on screen is successful. It is all realistic, the camera work on board with the seamen at work fighting storms and struggling with the sails up in the rig is absolutely terrific and well in style with good old British tradition of sailing adventures with tall ships dominating the show. This is a British film, the "Elsinore" is shown even to have been built in Glasgow, while in the novel it's a Baltimore ship sailing round the Cape Horn with an important cargo for the west coast. There is nothing of the Horn here, but all the rest is sufficient enough. You will be surprised to find Paul Lukas as the hero here and even using force, while in the novel he is more like Humphrey van Leyden in "Wolf-Larsen" all the way. In spite of the re-writing of the novel, set even in more modern times, leaving out all discussions of the last days of the tall sailing ships, which are important in the novel, it's a great rendering of Jack London's novel, his spirit is present all the way, especially the rough crew is magnificently staged, and I am sure Jack London himself would have approved of it and loved it.