MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962) ** If you had asked me what Marlon Brando should never be cast as the answer would have been easy enough: a foppish British aristocrat, no way the poster boy for grit and instinct could get close to that. Here, Marlon proves he could do it all. His performance is excellent, standing out yea like a beacon yet dimming all within its illumination. There's not much else to tell the truth, Richard Harris is lusty but not yet the actor he will become; Trevor Howard is a somewhat fitting bad guy, but the audience will likely be split down the middle between those who want to beat him for his role and those who want to beat him for his execution of it. Tahiti looks sure enough like paradise for a ship full of sober sailors, but Lewis Milestone never decides whether he wants to direct an adventure, morality play, or Harlequin romance; in 185 minutes he fails to develop any of the themes adequately, which nicely demonstrates why it's comfortable to be a novelist with unlimited runway for take-off. What should he have done? Taken the cash and made a film with Brando as a pirate, running rum across uncharted sealanes, and enacting a parallel kingdom in Tahiti (like in Apocalypse Now).
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