HotToastyRag You'd think a movie about the founding of Botany Bay would be really interesting, but this 1952 "swashbuckling adventure" was incredibly tedious. A bunch of convicts, with Alan Ladd, Patricia Medina, Murray Matheson, and Anita Sharp-Bolster as the featured leads, are sent to sail from England to New South Wales in the 1700s. Of course, since Alan Ladd can't put on a British accent, his character is written to be an American; and of course, even though she's one of very few women on board, already has a bad reputation, and walks around with her dress perpetually falling off her shoulders, no one takes advantage of Patricia Medina. Besides the unrealistic aspects of the story-no one would survive the punishments Alan Ladd endured-it still isn't very good. James Mason is the tough-as-nails sea captain, thinly veiled as another Captain Bligh. This movie is so closely a remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, it's as if James Mason got upset that no one wanted to redo the story in the 1950s so Hollywood appeased him with this. While I'm on the subject, I don't know why he wasn't cast in the 1962 remake; he could easily played any number of villains, like Captain Bligh, Inspector Javert, and Messala. And yes, James looks handsome in his captain's uniform, but unless you want to see him ordering fifty lashes and keel-hauling as if he's merely asking someone to refill his martini, feel free to skip this one. He looks handsome in almost every other movie he made, so you can sit through one of those.

rogerblake-281-718819 In the late 18th and early 19th century Great Britain used to get rid of her low lifes and petty felons by transporting them off to Botany Bay (Australia) in prison ships.A motley bunch who undoubtedly needed a firm hand and strong discipline.In James Mason's captain they certainly got that.On the surface he has a degree of charm and compassion but underneath he is a sadistic psychopath with possible suppressed gay feelings,this 1952 Hollywood could only hint at such things.By comparison he makes Captain Bligh seem like a lovable old softie.James Mason gives an absolutely brilliant performance.He was excellent in these sort of roles.It doesn't take long for him and the hero played by Alan Ladd to fall out.Ladd who has suffered a miscarriage of justice has a large chip on his shoulder.Also on board is a young female convict played by the lovely Patricia Medina whose cleavage must have given the censors a few headaches and a good eyeful.She is also big trouble.Mason certainly has it in for Ladd sentencing him to fifty lashes then threatening to keelhaul him.When told that nobody has been keelhauled for fifty years Mason in his best sneering voice says "I don't think its been quite that long".Ladd much to Mason's annoyance survives.John Farrow,the director,doesn't pull his punches depicting the horror,unpleasantness and cruelty suffered by the convicts.It may have seemed necessary at the time but to modern sensibilities it was not Britain's finest hour,it is the most realistic part of the film.Of course this was an American film financed by American money so lets have a little dig at Britain's colonial past.I'm surprised that the anti British Mel Gibson hasn't remade it.Be that as it may when they land Australia looks like the Paramount back lot.The good news is that Mason gets his comeuppance thanks to a well directed Aborigine spear.Then HOORAY Alan Ladd's pardon arrives and the benevolent governor allows Patricia Medina to become his bride (no doubt their descendants delight in thrashing England at cricket)Not a classic but a fine salty saga all in glorious Technicolor.Ladd is excellent in this type of role.Apart perhaps from "Shane" he is undeservedly a forgotten name now.This must be one of the few Australian based films made in the fifties that didn't feature that wonderful character actor Chips Rafferty.Patricia Medina's cleavage is worth a star on its own so I'll give it seven which I think is a fair mark.

MartinHafer This is a rather ordinary and amazingly listless film considering the subject matter. You'd think that a movie about prisoners being transported to the British colony in New South Wales (Australia) would be pretty gritty and exciting. Well, despite the topic, the film just seemed very low-key and low-energy---with little to distinguish it from any other film. Ironically, this film came out the same year as "Shane"--a much better film that also starred Alan Ladd.Ladd stars as an American who gets into trouble in England and is being transported to the penal colony. However, he gets word that he's received a pardon and things look wonderful. The problem, however, is that the ship's Captain (James Mason) is a real wiener and won't hear of waiting or getting verification of the pardon and simply sails with Ladd and the rest of them! Nice guy, huh? Throughout the cruise, Mason is a real taskmaster and jerk--though this sort of rigidity was not that unusual for a British naval officer of this period. Lots of things happen aboard, including an attempted escape, but I won't go into the details in case you wish to see the film. However, by the time they arrive in the colony, Mason is determined to take Ladd back to Old Blighty for a trial...and hanging. What is Ladd to do?! Will our stalwart hero manage to somehow survive his wretched ordeal? As I said, this was very low energy. Ladd was capable of some nice performances and I like him as an actor, but he was also capable of listless performances as well. This one was one of his less distinguished and less interesting ones--and would have benefited from him injecting a bit more machismo and energy into this acting. A bit predictable, as well, by the way.

dinky-4 A good premise: a gaggle of British convicts, male and female, are shipped to the new penal colony in Australia, circa 1780s. But while this story calls for great seascapes, Paramount gives us ship-in-a-soundstage scenes which are cramped and unconvincing. Even the later sequences in Australia have a "backlot" quality to them. Note the dark, sexually-ambiguous undertones in the performance of ship's captain, James Mason. Alan Ladd, who, like Burt Lancaster and Mel Gibson, liked to suffer in his movies, here gets to be flogged and later keelhauled. His flogging in "Two Years Before the Mast" is much more vivid but his keelhauling in "Botany Bay" marks the only time a Hollywood leading man has suffered this particular kind of punishment. Curiously, despite his penchant for "beefcake" scenes, Ladd remains fully clothed for this sequence. Perhaps the fear was that audiences would understandably expect a shirtless Ladd to suffer many cuts and abrasions on his bare torso while being scraped under the ship's keel, and Paramount didn't want to see its handsome leading man forced to look, even temporarily, disfigured or damaged.