In the Wake of the Bounty In the Wake of the Bounty In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) is an Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel about the 1789 Mutiny on the Bounty. It is notable as the screen debut of Errol Flynn, playing Fletcher Christian. The film preceded MGM's more famous "Mutiny on the Bounty", starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, by two years. Chauvel's film uses introductory enacted scenes showing the mutiny, followed by documentary footage, anthropological style, of the mutineers' descendants on Pitcairn Island. Chauvel also used footage of Polynesian women dancers; and film of an underwater shipwreck, filmed with a glass
Charles Laughton appeared at the Comédie-Française as Sganarelle in the second act of Molière's "Le Médecin malgré lui", the first English actor to appear at that theatre, where he acted the part in French and received an ovation. Laughton commenced his film career in Britain while still acting on the London stage. He also took small roles in three short silent comedies starring his wife Elsa Lanchester, "Daydreams", "Blue Bottles" and "The Tonic" (all 1928) which had been specially written for her by H.G. Wells and were directed by Ivor Montagu. He made a brief appearance as a disgruntled diner in another