Plymouth Adventure

Plymouth Adventure
original film poster
Directed byClarence Brown
Written byHelen Deutsch
Based onThe Plymouth Adventure
1950 novel
by Ernest Gébler
Produced byDore Schary
StarringSpencer Tracy
Gene Tierney
Van Johnson
Leo Genn
CinematographyWilliam H. Daniels
Edited byRobert J. Kern
Music byMiklós Rózsa
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.
Release date
  • November 14, 1952 (1952-11-14)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.2 million[1]
Box office$3 million[2][1]

Plymouth Adventure is a 1952 American Technicolor historical drama film with an ensemble cast starring Spencer Tracy, Gene Tierney, Van Johnson and Leo Genn, made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,[3][4] directed by Clarence Brown, and produced by Dore Schary. The screenplay was adapted by Helen Deutsch from the 1950 novel The Voyage of the Mayflower by Ernest Gébler. The supporting cast includes Barry Jones, Dawn Addams, Lloyd Bridges and John Dehner.

This was veteran director Brown's final film.

Plot

The film tells a fictionalized version of the Pilgrims' voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to North America aboard the Mayflower. During the long sea voyage, Capt. Christopher Jones falls in love with Dorothy Bradford, the wife of William Bradford. The love triangle is resolved in a tragic way at the film's conclusion. Ship's carpenter John Alden — said to be the first person to set foot on Plymouth Rock in 1620 — catches the eye of Priscilla Mullins, one of the young Pilgrims following William Bradford. Alden ultimately wins Priscilla in another, if subtler, triangle with Miles Standish.

Cast

Production

Schary said at the time "I don't think that historical era has been done properly on screen before because the people were too soft. The pilgrims had to be tough and lusty to accomplish what they did. So that's the kind we cast in the film."[5]

Reception

According to MGM records, the film earned $1,909,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,116,000 elsewhere; but, because of its high cost, ended up incurring a loss of $1,856,000.[1]

Major film reviewers in newspapers and magazines tended to praise the film's production values, while noting to different degrees performances and lapses in historical accuracy.[6]

Awards and honors

The picture won the Oscar for Best Effects. The actual model of the Mayflower ship from the movie is on display at the Original Benjamin's Calabash Seafood restaurant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The model was purchased in an auction in the mid-1980s.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
  3. ^ Variety film review; October 22, 1952, page 6.
  4. ^ Harrison's Reports film review; October 25, 1952, page 170.
  5. ^ Hopper, Hedda (27 July 1952). "MAN WITH A MISSION!: Chief of M-G-M Studio Believes All Men Are Created Equal and Practices What He Preaches! DORE SCHARY". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. c6. ProQuest 178268967.
  6. ^ A bibliography of contemporary reviews, some of them annotated, can be found at Reel American History