Botany Bay

Alan Ladd completed his Paramount contract with this blighted version of Nordhoff & Hall's 1941 novel which (since plague features in the plot) ironically had to be rescheduled around a nasty bout of 'flu that confined him to bed for several days during production.

Despite an interesting cast (with James Mason absolutely loathsome as the brutal captain, who later recalled he found director John Farrow's own cruelty on the set gave him "some useful hints"), rich Technicolor photography by veteran cameraman John Seitz, frequent floggings, a keelhauling and other unpleasantness, the studio-bound end result is surprisingly garrulous and uninvolving.

I recall catching this as a kid on local TV, a screening which, most probably, came about via the personal print of the film-buff sexton who calls over a number of friends, me included, from time to time to his private home theater in order to share in his vast movie collection on 16 and 35mm. Based on a book by the authors behind "Mutiny On The Bounty", this follows a very similar path – with a ship's crew at the mercy of a martinet captain (James Mason basically returning to the kind of role which had made him a star in his homeland); his opposition is led by medical student(!) Alan Ladd (typically dour) who's actually one of the many prisoners bound for exile in far-away Australia, among whom is also leading lady Patricia Medina (predictably, over the course of the film, she also becomes a personal object of contention between the two male stars).

Despite such imposing credentials as scriptwriter Jonathan Latimer and director Farrow, the film perhaps fails to rise consistently above the routine – not even with such unusual plot points as Mason's adoption of a banned form of punishment (keel-hauling); during the latter stages, then – as the company sets ashore, and we also get to meet Governor Sir Cedric Hardwicke – the film tends to lose the initial momentum of the ship-board brutality. Suffice it to say that the film I watched just prior to it, CARTOUCHE (1962; with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Claudia Cardinale) was over 20 minutes longer but seemed to me to have moved at a much quicker pace! Even so, BOTANY BAY remains a good example of the colorful entertainment they used to churn out in the old days, given an extra edge by Mason's compelling portrayal (which, if anything, suggests that he'd have made a marvelous Captain Bligh).

For the record, John Farrow directed Alan Ladd for the fifth and last time here after what looks like a run of mostly unassuming action potboilers: CHINA (1943), the equally seafaring TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST (1946), CALCUTTA (1947) and BEYOND GLORY (1948). It must be said here that, locally, Alan Ladd was a very popular film star with my father's generation and, apart from the immortal Western SHANE (1953), it's a pity that he seems to have been undeservedly forgotten with the passage of time.

P.S. Useless bit of trivia: I have just come across an allegedly uncut copy of the controversial WAKE IN FRIGHT aka OUTBACK (1971; with Donald Pleasence) taken from an Australian TV screening and, as the credits rolled, an announcer informs the audience to tune in at the same time tomorrow for a screening of…BOTANY BAY!!

In Sheridan Morley's biography "James Mason: Odd Man Out", the author claimed "Botany Bay" dashed any hopes James had that he would receive more elevated acting roles after appearing as Brutus in Joseph Mankiewicz's "Julius Caesar". This smacked of theatrical snobbery, however Mason also seemed disdainful saying, "At it's worst, my Hollywood life was a matter of facile assembly work like Botany Bay".

However, Mason injected that disdain into his role as Captain Gilbert creating a witty, arrogant villain with the evil charm of his Phillip Vandamm from "North by Northwest" crossed with the martinet brutality of Captain Bligh. Alan Ladd movies worked best when he had an animated adversary or sidekick to counterpoint his quiet, unruffable demeanour, Mason gave him one of the best villains in any of his films.

Mason played the captain of the three-masted Charlotte, part of "The First Fleet" transporting the first convicts from England to Botany Bay in New South Wales. In the hold is innocent American doctor, Hugh Tallant (Alan Ladd) and not so innocent Sally (Patricia Medina), an actress fallen in with rough company. There is history in there somewhere but the facts weren't allowed to get in the way of the story.

Following "Two Years Before the Mast" onboard the Pilgrim, this was Alan Ladd's second cruise under a tough captain. Not so much the fictional ship's masters, but the "master" of both films, director John Farrow, an ex-naval commander who had a reputation for being an SOB on set.

Both films were studio bound hell cruises, but "Botany Bay" is more fun. Compare the 20 lashes Alan Ladd's character receives on the orders of the Pilgrim's captain played by Howard da Silva, which lays him up in his bunk recovering for days, while he treats the 50 lashes he receives from Mason's Captain Gilbert as though the cat-o-nine-tails was made of pyjama cords. And what about the female convicts fighting on the deck with Patricia Medina right in the thick of it suffering a torn sleeve, but without a smudge of her lipstick?

Historical liberties were taken including composer Franz Waxman incorporating "Advance Australia Fair" into his score although it wasn't composed until 1878. A didgeridoo would have been more authentic for 1788. Nevertheless, try to catch a good print of this film; although just about all the scenes were shot in the studio it has a rich look.

Farrow and Mason could be difficult men, but in a 1999 documentary, "Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man", we learn that Alan Ladd was considerate, courteous and liked in an industry where egos often ran riot. Patricia Medina said that he had a quality that made her feel almost maternal about him. However, he had inner demons; he is one of Hollywood's tragic stars.

I think "Botany Bay" is one of John Farrow's better films, and it's the scene stealing from Mason and Medina, despite floggings, keel-hauling and plague, that helps make it so.

Here's another film about transporting prisoners to Australia in the 18th century. I can't comment on the accuracy of the history here but this is a subject that often gets used as the backdrop to films or TV series. It does allow scope for adventure, a bit of swashbuckling, usually a dose of brutality and often a pretty heroine. All are present here with Alan Ladd as a doctor wrongly accused of highway robbery, the beautiful and perhaps underrated Patricia Medina as the heroine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the governor at Botany Bay and best of all, James Mason as the brutal sea captain giving one of his most charismatic performances ever that I've seen and that's many. Mason simply steals every scene he's in and you can't take your eyes off him and he certainly gives. Charles Laughton a run for the money in Mutiny On The Bounty. I understand it was all shot on backlots at Paramount which can give a claustraphobic feel when it needed opening up with location work but even so passes a couple of hours fairly successfully.

Other reviewers of Botany Bay have complained about the lack of location shooting in this film. Two very good reasons for Paramount's decision to opt for the back lot. First it was expensive to go to Australia for an American company. I'm sure that there are Aussie films that deal with this particular portion of their history far better than Botany Bay.

But secondly this was the last picture on Alan Ladd's Paramount contract. He and his agent/wife Sue Carol made a decision to move to Warner Brothers so Paramount was getting rid of the last film on his contract. They were not about to spend big bucks promoting a star who wasn't going to be bringing in more box office for them.

Having said that Botany Bay is not a bad film and it certainly did give American audiences some idea about the founding of Australia as a haven for convict prisoners. One of our original 13 colonies, Georgia, was founded for just that reason also, but here a whole continent was devoted to same.

Ladd plays an American accused of being a highwayman in Great Britain. The fact he was an American probably played some role in his conviction so shortly after the American Revolution in the 1780s. He's saved from the hangman by this offer of pardon to go to Australia and he travels on a crowded ship, skippered by a sadistic captain.

Who is played by James Mason who basically steals the film. The novel on which this is based is by Nordhoff and Hall who wrote Mutiny on the Bounty and there's a whole lot of Captain Bligh in Mason. We've also got Patricia Medina, a saucy wench who likes Ladd, but flirts with Mason for her survival on the ship in some comfort.

Not a bad film, but not the greatest of send offs for one of Paramount's biggest stars.