Capitaine sans loi

It's 1620 Southampton, England. Pilgrim families are waiting to board the Mayflower. Christopher Jones (Spencer Tracy) is the Captain. The authority is looking to hang the group's leader William Brewster. Among the crew is first-mate Coppin (Lloyd Bridges) and new ship's carpenter John Alden (Van Johnson). The captain conflicts with Dorothy Bradford (Gene Tierney) who is married to William Bradford. Company agent Weston bribes Jones to drop the Pilgrim in Cape Cod, hundreds of miles away from their intended destination in Virginia.

The production spent a lot of money and it shows on the screen. It did win the Oscar for Best Special Effects. Like always with historical dramas, accuracy is suspect. Everything else is a bit middling. This has great actors, but they can't do more than on the page. It feels a bit scattered as the story follows many characters. It's a bit old school with veteran director Clarence Brown and it turns out to be his last. There may not be enough drama to do a movie about the voyage and the movie does not disprove that fear. The romantic drama feels manufactured. In the end, this has the one Oscar and not much else.

A great movie to watch for the Thanksgiving holiday! It was a perfect blend of history and entertainment, not to mention excellent acting from Spencer Tracy as Captain Christopher Jones, and Van Johnson as John Alden. (I would have liked more scenes with him and Priscilla Mullins, played by Dawn Addams.)

The movie shows the many hardships the Pilgrims went through, not to mention the difficulties getting started in the first place, like William Brewster (Barry Jones) having to hide from the authorities wanting to arrest him. At the same time, it adds a bit of romantic tragedy, as the tough talking, hard drinking captain falls for the married Dorothy Bradford (Gene Tierney) and she returns the feeling, though still caring for her husband William (Leo Genn), a good man who too often puts duty before his wife. This story was added to give one possible answer to the question of what really happened to Dorothy Bradford.

A movie worth watching.

This is a very fine movie! As I am not American these pilgrims have not meant so much to me - although I recognized a name or two - but now I feel I know them and understand them a little. Not only because of what I learned in the movie itself, but from the reading I have done after wards because it awakened my interest and curiosity. Good historical movies shall work just like that - and for a good cause a little poetical license is acceptable! Because without the unconsummated and tragic love story, also if it did not happen in reality, this movie would not have been half as thrilling.

Some reviewers here have complained that Spencer Tracy looks too old to play Captain Jones, but I find this strange as the real Captain Jones was the same age as Tracy... and as Jones also partook of the hardships on board, not only on this famous voyage but in a whole life at sea, and in fact died only a year after he returned to England, HE probably did not look like a spring chicken either... I also must admit that I at least find Tracy attractive in this part!

The best thing about this movie is the dialogue; there are many lines that are as beautiful as poetry. Captain Jones' words when he talks of his broken ship, his lonely nights and his feverish longing for Mrs Bradford, is some of the best dialogue I have ever heard in a love scene written for a movie. Very pungent and erotic with a feeling of impending doom...

The feeling of being transported to the time period is very good. The sailing part is as far as I can see accurate - you get to see a little of the sailors really working the sails, pulling up the anchor etc. (I would have wanted more of this). The photo is beautiful and there are impressive storm scenes etc..

There is one thing lacking though: I would have expected more religious ardor from the passengers. More spirit. After all: these are the founding fathers!!! I think they come out as too ordinary, too preoccupied with practical matters like any migrating peasants.

An already aged-looking SPENCER TRACY is Captain Jones of the Mayflower in this MGM visualization of what the crossing to the New World may have been like on an overcrowded ship full of hopeful, determined passengers and crew. But neither he nor GENE TIERNEY (as Mrs. Bradford) seem at home in roles that are never really fleshed out by the script. Nevertheless, Tierney gets plenty of wistful close-ups as she gazes toward the horizon (or Tracy), but little of substance to do.

Neither does VAN JOHNSON get more than a brief supporting role as John Alden. LEO GENN gets more material as Tierney's stuffed shirt husband but little can be said of the other passengers except for LLOYD BRIDGES who struts around as a bronzed, blue-eyed pirate with taking ways. He at least livens up the scene whenever he's around.

The main trouble is the lack of strong drama in the script. Most of the passengers are a dull lot. Added to that, the lack of real chemistry between Tracy and Tierney makes it difficult to believe their love could be deep enough for her to care about this rude and cynical man completely lacking any sort of refinement in his nature.

The big storm scene is well realized and staged for maximum effect, but only serves to remind us how dull the other sections of the film are.

Summing up: A very uneven drama about an historical event that celebrated the birth of the New World. Should have been so much better.

Where is the masterpiece American film on this dramatic voyage and settlement of the founders of our democracy? Plymouth Adventure, the best of its kind, has many of the virtues of great American studio work (convincing mise en scene, great ship, vivid action [the storm], fine acting [try to ignore the hobbled accents], and smooth story continuity) and can be enjoyed because of all that, but it never conveys a sense of the agonized desperation and profound spiritual quest of the dissenters. Perhaps Gene Tierney is just too beautfiul, perhaps the costumes are just too sparkling, and certainly the tragic affair with the Captain is better suited to a Douglas Sirk melodrama. For a different account, one can view Mayflower (Anthony Hopkins version), but that errs on the side of political correctness, and drab plotting, and tub-sails a low-budget toy Mayflower. We await the great film about the adventure of these heroic common folks to whom we owe so much.