Free Advice: Don’t try to win an Oscar for an adventure picture the same year that Lawrence of Arabia gets made. Don’t try to make any money, either.

So you get Marlon Brando to annoy Captain Bligh for you while he tries to decide what kind of accent a British person has. That’s supposed to put butts in the seats. But it didn’t. They made a real, live Bounty for the movie, and sailed it all over the Pacific, but even that didn’t help. Brando got a hot looking wife out of the deal, and bought an island or two, but everyone else took a saltwater bath on the deal.

You know, it’s a shame.  Mutiny on the Bounty is a really good movie. Trevor Howard makes an excellent Captain Bligh, maybe the best ever. The movie looks awesome on a big screen, and the soundtrack is really good. There are a ton of secondary players like Richard Harris and Robert Haydn and Percy Herbert that are fun to watch. The Tahitian babes were, well, they were Tahitian babes. They’re wearing flowers and smiles. It’s all good.

If you produced Mutiny on the Bounty, you lost your shirt, and there was only one saving grace. You could sleep easier knowing that instead of giving the Oscar for Best Actor to Peter O’Toole, they gave it to Gregory Peck for two hours of sanctimony instead of three hours of adventure in the desert. Your bank account might be empty, but at least you could blame everything on the indisputable fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has no idea what they’re doing.