Tyrant of the Sea Tyrant of the Sea Tyrant of the Sea is a 1950 American historical war film directed by Lew Landers and starring Ron Randell, Rhys Williams and Lester Matthews. It is set during the Napoleonic Wars, with Admiral Horatio Nelson appearing as a character. The film began as a project "The Return of Captain Bligh" and was to star Charles Laughton, who had famously played Captain Bligh in "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935). However Laughton did not want to repeat his performance so the project was rewritten to focus on a fictitious character. Rhys Williams played the part based on Bligh.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film) concerning his weight and unattractive looks, suffered horribly in comparing himself to the handsome, masculine Clark Gable. Laughton would constantly watch his own walk, gestures, and face, making sure not to let his complex be projected. A British merchant navy officer recalled in his memoirs seeing the fore and aft-rigged schooner "Commodore II" being broken up in Cape Town in 1945, having suffered severe gale damage, and that this was the ship that had been re-rigged for the film. Contemporary reviews were enthusiastic. Andre Sennwald of "The New York Times" wrote, "Grim, brutal, sturdily romantic, made out of horror and