Trivia / Mutiny on the Bounty

• Banned in China: The film was banned in the Empire of Japan as it was feared it promoted revolution.
• Dueling Movies: With Captain Blood, another 1935 naval epic.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Clark Gable shaved his trademark moustache for the film. And Charles Laughton's in pretty good shape — looks like he took off a couple dozen pounds for this.
• Fake Brit: Clark Gable is Fletcher Christian and Franchot Tone is Roger Byam. Both actors are American.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Clark Gable was initially disappointed when Franchot Tone was cast as Byam. The two actors had been bitter rivals for the affections of Joan Crawford while filming Dancing Lady (1933), and they did not like each other at all. However, during filming Gable surprisingly became close friends with Tone when they discovered a mutual interest in alcohol and women, both of which were abundantly available in Avalon, the island of Catalina's famous pleasure town.
  • Irving Thalberg cast Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on-screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). In any event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night. In order to break the ice before shooting, Gable, apparently unaware of co-star Laughton's homosexuality, took him to a brothel. Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester always said that Laughton was nevertheless "flattered" by this gesture.
• Money, Dear Boy: James Cagney, then on a hiatus from Warner Bros. during a contract dispute, has a cameo in the film. He is clearly visible toward the beginning of the film. He was sailing his boat near where the film was shooting near Catalina Island; director Frank Lloyd was an old friend of his, and Cagney asked him if he could play a small part in the film, saying, jokingly, "I need the money." Lloyd had Cagney dressed in a crewman's clothes and put him in the background of a few scenes.
• Romance on the Set: During filming Clark Gable and Franchot Tone were said to have become romantically involved with Mamo Clark and Movita, who played their girlfriends in the movie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Wallace Beery was the original choice to play Captain Bligh with Robert Montgomery as Roger Byam. It was decided that Beery was too American and Montgomery didn't want to do the film.
  • MGM wanted Cary Grant to play Byam, and he wanted to do it, but he was under contract to Paramount, which refused to release him.

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