Mutiny on the Elsinore (1937) User Reviews

"There's something rummy about that chap tonight."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 13 December 2006]

Not too bad a story for a film I'd never heard of before, much less have a chance to see if not for a neat little compilation of ten movies on three DVD's from St. Clair Vision. The set has a pirates theme with bonus features including an excerpt from a 1938 radio broadcast.

"The Mutiny of the Elsinore" is based on the Jack London novel "Captain Walter Summers". The Summers character is mentioned as a murder victim of one Sidney Waltham, a sailor who can be identified by a large gash on top of his head. He's aboard the Elsinore as a limping sailor named Mellaire (Ben Soutten), and has a mind to do away with first mate Pike (Lyn Harding) before Pike can make the connection. What's interesting in the early going is that Pike seems to be set up as the bad guy of the piece, a hard nosed bully who rules by fear and the threat of irons. He's in the employ of ship's Captain West (Conway Dixon), who sails with his daughter Margaret (Kathleen Kelly) aboard. Rounding out the main cast is writer Jack Pethurst (Paul Lukas), who's sailing to gather information for a book he's writing.

One thing for certain, political correctness was never a concern with films of the era. When a new sailor makes his acquaintance below decks with two men on board, Murphy tells Twist - "Kid, get that n---er up" referring to a black man named Roberts who's made to vacate his bunk.

Once things get under way, Mullaire/Waltham heats things up by killing Captain West and putting Pike on the spot to smoke out the murderer. Pike orders any hands not on duty to be shackled until the killer comes forward, but you don't have to be there to see how this will go. Sailors loyal to Mullaire prepare to mutiny, while Pike's group stands to defend the Elsinore. It's all played out quite interestingly, with writer Pethurst lining up with Pike, not a tough choice as he's been eying Captain West's daughter for the entire voyage.

A couple of minor sub plots are introduced that don't have much impact. There's a loony sailor named O'Sullivan who's jealous of Pethurst, believing that the pretty West girl should be with him. When he attempts to kill Pethurst, he cracks and is sequestered with a lazy sailor named Davis who manages to avoid work on ship at all costs. Confined to sick bay, he dispatches O'Sullivan overboard (offscreen) to get rid of the nuisance. Davis is always quoting maritime law in an attempt to intimidate Pike, as if the same didn't apply to him. He makes it to the end of the story, but one kind of wishes he gets his along the way.

The mutiny of course doesn't fare well. Even though Pike is seriously wounded, Miss West names Pethurst the ship's man in charge, and he brings things around to a successful conclusion. She even gets into the act by shooting Mullaire as he battles the rejuvenated Pike; funny how Pike roared back to life after being shot at point blank range by Mullaire.

Interestingly, the Elsinore's destination was never mentioned in the story, even though it was going to be on a three month voyage, sailing out of Glasgow. Crates in the hold were marked for San Francisco, though that didn't seem likely. The other quirky item of note appeared to be Pethurst's sailing attire. Virtually the entire voyage, including his take charge duty during the attempted mutiny, he wore a suit and tie. Near the end he got a bit more casual by wearing a sweater, even though the suit remained intact. He never did write down anything for his book, not even a set of notes!

"Mutiny gives one quite an appetite . . . "

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 4 February 2016]

. . . says Lord Fauntleroy to the only woman on a ship swarming with four dozen mutineers (who've just killed her dad, the Captain) and three crewmen loyal to a random landlubber in a suit and tie. But the guy who just happens to be "along for the ride" has the only rifle on board, and on this Ship of Fools, any monkey with a gun is king. The crew already has proved themselves to be total idiots, by retreating away from all their vessel's food and water supplies at the outset of their uprising. Their leadership committee is comprised of a psychotic murderer, a Big City mobster, and a malingering Communist "Sea Lawyer." If Justin Bieber knew how to use a gun, even he'd be able to hold his own against this Sad Sack bunch. Compared to "The Biebs," rifleman Jack Pethurst is one tough Hombre. He guns down dolphins from the bridge of the ship just for fun, not concerned in the least that they'll sabotage his tuna fish sandwich down the road. If you're interested in a maritime version of THE PLANET OF THE APES, this MUTINY ON THE ELSINORE might be just your ticket to bliss.

Paul Lukas Earns His Captaincy With His Fists And Rifle

[boblipton · 6/10 · 15 October 2023]

Paul Lukas is a writer, traveling on an old clipper, looking for details on his next book. When a long-fugitive criminal shoots captain Conway Dixon and then incites half the crew to mutiny, it's up to Lukas to rally the reluctant loyal crew, often brutally, winning the heart of captain's daughter Kathleen Kelly in the process.

It's based on the Jack London book with a script by Captain Walter Summers. It's a talky thing for the first two-thirds, redeemed only by shots of the ship at sea. They were lifted from the French version of the movie. Several ambitious directors tried to shoot at sea when the movie called for it during the Studio era, and they were usually disastrous. The French version of this movie encountered storms at sea, but pulled some great shots that help make the movie.

Lockwood didn't direct many movies. He spent most of career in radio broadcasting in New York, writing and directing. But he also wrote extensively for YACHTING magazine. After he retired, he moved to Maine for the sailing. He died in 2002 at the age of 94.

Paul Lucas...action hero(???).

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 7 October 2016]

"Mutiny on the Elsinore" is a film that really shocked me. It was a relatively low budget British film that had fallen into the public domain....not exactly a recipe for a cracking good film. But, despite this, the film was exceptionally well made and unique.

When the film begins, the folks on a four-masted sailing ship are waiting for a passenger. Inexplicably, a writer, Jack Pethurst (Paul Lukas), wanted to be aboard and write about life on one of these old boats. At first, he's horrified by how brutal the first mate is. But, slowly he begins to see that this brutality might me necessary as there are many ingredients for a potential mutiny--such as the lazy communist-like seaman, the crazed Irishman bent on murder, an actual murderer hiding among the crew and more.

The most amazing thing about this film is seeing the Hungarian actor, Lukas, playing a bit of an action hero! It's also amazing to see him, for a time, as the Captain of the vessel!! How could this be? Well, see the film. As for the film itself, it's very exciting, has some wonderful acting and is just darn good entertainment.

Exciting drama with magnificent shots of sailors at work on a real three-master

[robert-temple-1 · 8/10 · 17 October 2015]

This little-know film is based on a novel by Jack London entitled CAPTAIN WALTER SUMMERS, which had previously been made into a silent film in 1920 as THE MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE, and filmed also in French in 1936 as LES MUTINÉS DE L'ELSENEUR, with Jean Murat in the lead role. In this film, Paul Lukas plays the lead, Jack Pathurst (not Pethurst as mistakenly listed in IMDb), a journalist taking a long journey on a sailing ship in order to write an account of it for the public. Lucas was really too old at 46 to be the ardent suitor of the ship's captain's daughter, but he did very well in the role anyway. The only other reviewer of this film has made a mistake in saying that there is no indication in the dialogue as to the destination of the ship. In fact, it is clearly stated that it is bound for 'Frisco' (San Francisco). The daughter of the ship's captain is played in sprightly mode by a very good young actress named Kathleen Kelly, who made 22 films between 1932 and 1939 and then vanished from our radar entirely, so that little is known of her except that she was born in 1912. This film's extensive use of a genuine old sailing ship of huge size (three main masts) and its detailed depiction of how the men cling on while furling and unfurling those gigantic sails is exciting enough in itself to merit watching this film. But the story is also a very good adventure yarn, involving a mutiny on board, the murder of the captain, people being thrown overboard, people climbing up and down ventilation pipes, a crazed sailor who goes mad onboard, a criminal fleeing justice by enlisting in the crew, and a host of dubious characters. Paul Lukas, as usual, plays a noble fellow who is always in his jacket and tie even when climbing up towards the crow's nest with Kathleen Kelly. And when push comes to shove, he is a good shot and kills plenty of rebellious sailors as they rampage and riot. There is certainly no shortage of action in this film. It is very well directed by Roy Lockwood, who only directed three feature films in his career. According to information on IMDb, his daughter and son-in-law tracked down an archival print of this film and had it transferred onto video tape in 1997 to celebrate his 90th birthday, which is how we have it available on a DVD now. I wish he were still around so that I could ask him how on earth (or should I say how at sea) he ever got those shots high up in the rigging of that ship.

First class action thriller!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 29 September 2017]

Just to clear up the title first, this 1937 British film was made as "The Mutiny of the Elsinore", but it was released in the U.S.A. in 1939 as "Mutiny on the Elsinore". And a darn good film it is too! Well, it was adapted from a novel by Jack London, a writer who really knows how to integrate believable characters into super thrilling, but still wholly believable, situations.

This one is set entirely on a sailing ship. I always imagined that sailing ships were both very small and very cramped. But this one, the Elsinore, is huge. The crew alone numbered more than sixty men. I also thought that sailing ships went out of service way back in 1900. But no, they were still plying between Britain and the U.S.A. in the 1930s.

A huge, old-fashioned sailing ship that took a huge crew to man her! What an ideal setting for a thriller! And that is exactly what writer Jack London and this movie adaptation give us - in spades! Roy Lockwood's direction is first class. It's alive with believable action all the way from London to New York!

I never imagined Paul Lukas as a go-getting hero, but that is exactly the believable portrait he gives us here. The rest of the cast, particularly Clifford Evans, Lyn Harding and Michael Martin- Harvey, plus the lovely heroine played by Kathleen Kelly, is also both convincing and absolutely first rate.

If you're looking for a movie with plenty of atmosphere, packed with action and an abundance of thrills - and even a bit of romance - you can't do better than "Mutiny on the Elsinore". It's available on a very good Alpha DVD, courtesy of the Samuel M. Sherman Archives.

Terrific sea adventure on the last great sea novel of Jack London

[clanciai · 9/10 · 26 July 2021]

This was one of Jack London's last novels, his last sea novel and one of his best novels. Naturally it was slightly remade for the screen, but on the whole the rendering of it on screen is successful. It is all realistic, the camera work on board with the seamen at work fighting storms and struggling with the sails up in the rig is absolutely terrific and well in style with good old British tradition of sailing adventures with tall ships dominating the show. This is a British film, the "Elsinore" is shown even to have been built in Glasgow, while in the novel it's a Baltimore ship sailing round the Cape Horn with an important cargo for the west coast. There is nothing of the Horn here, but all the rest is sufficient enough. You will be surprised to find Paul Lukas as the hero here and even using force, while in the novel he is more like Humphrey van Leyden in "Wolf-Larsen" all the way. In spite of the re-writing of the novel, set even in more modern times, leaving out all discussions of the last days of the tall sailing ships, which are important in the novel, it's a great rendering of Jack London's novel, his spirit is present all the way, especially the rough crew is magnificently staged, and I am sure Jack London himself would have approved of it and loved it.