Plymouth Adventure
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
The film tells a fictionalized version of the Pilgrims' voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to North America aboard the Mayflower. During the long sea voyage, Capt. Christopher Jones (Spencer Tracy) falls in love with Dorothy Bradford (Gene Tierney), the wife of William Bradford (Leo Genn). The love triangle is resolved in a tragic way at the film's conclusion. Ship's carpenter John Alden (Van Johnson) -- said to be the first person to set foot on Plymouth Rock in 1620—catches the eye of Priscilla Mullins (Dawn Addams), one of the young Pilgrims following William Bradford. Alden ultimately wins Priscilla in another, if subtler, triangle with Miles Standish (Noel Drayton). Lloyd Bridges provides comic relief as the first-mate Coppin, and child star Tommy Ivo gives a touching performance as young William Button, the only passenger to die on the actual voyage across the storm-swept Atlantic, who, according to this film, wanted to be the first to sight land and to become a king in the New World. “I’m going to be the first to see land. Keep me eye peeled, I will. Then I’ll be the first. It’ll be like the Garden of Eden and I’m going to be the first to see it”.

Review: The great Spencer Tracy was fifty-two years old when "Plymouth Adventure" was made, and, unfortunately, he looked seventy.
In fact, despite his strong dislike for the Pilgrims, he decides not to abandon them to sure death, because he loves Dorothy Bradford - Gene Tierney.
Plymouth Adventure, the best of its kind, has many of the virtues of great American studio work (convincing mise en scene, great ship, vivid action [the storm], fine acting [try to ignore the hobbled accents], and smooth story continuity) and can be enjoyed because of all that, but it never conveys a sense of the agonized desperation and profound spiritual quest of the dissenters.
An already aged-looking SPENCER TRACY is Captain Jones of the Mayflower in this MGM visualization of what the crossing to the New World may have been like on an overcrowded ship full of hopeful, determined passengers and crew.
Nevertheless, Tierney gets plenty of wistful close-ups as she gazes toward the horizon (or Tracy), but little of substance to do.Neither does VAN JOHNSON get more than a brief supporting role as John Alden.
LEO GENN gets more material as Tierney's stuffed shirt husband but little can be said of the other passengers except for LLOYD BRIDGES who struts around as a bronzed, blue-eyed pirate with taking ways.
Added to that, the lack of real chemistry between Tracy and Tierney makes it difficult to believe their love could be deep enough for her to care about this rude and cynical man completely lacking any sort of refinement in his nature.The big storm scene is well realized and staged for maximum effect, but only serves to remind us how dull the other sections of the film are.Summing up: A very uneven drama about an historical event that celebrated the birth of the New World.
Because without the unconsummated and tragic love story, also if it did not happen in reality, this movie would not have been half as thrilling.Some reviewers here have complained that Spencer Tracy looks too old to play Captain Jones, but I find this strange as the real Captain Jones was the same age as Tracy...
and as Jones also partook of the hardships on board, not only on this famous voyage but in a whole life at sea, and in fact died only a year after he returned to England, HE probably did not look like a spring chicken either...
Captain Jones' words when he talks of his broken ship, his lonely nights and his feverish longing for Mrs Bradford, is some of the best dialogue I have ever heard in a love scene written for a movie.
I had never heard of this flick and tuned to it (thank you, Turner Classic Movies) primarily because of the presence of the great Spencer Tracy and one of my favorite character actors, Van Johnson, whose acting skills I find vastly underrated.
Leaving that aside the movie is a pretty engrossing depiction of the trials and travails of the Pilgrims, although the conditions on their actual voyage were probably a lot grimmer than Hollywood could politely depict in those days.
It tells the Mayflower odyssey , it was the ship that transported the first English Separatists , known today as the Pilgrims , from Plymouth to the New World in 1620 , a very dangerous voyage carried out by a brave passenger list that made the 96-day storm-filled crossing .
Captained by Captain Christopher Jones (Spencer Tracy) who piloted and helped the valiant pilgrims , he stayed at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts , waiting for favorable weather to return home to England on the "Mayflower" .
Other notorious pilgrims were John Alden (Van Johnson) , William Bradford (Leo Genn) , Gilbert Winslow (John Dehner) , Edward Winslow (Lowell Gilmore) , and William Brewster (Barry Jones) .
However , actually , after landing in Massachusetts , the colonists tried three times to sail southward to Virginia, but was driven back by storms .Interesting historical film about the famous feat based on the novel by Ernest Gebler with screenplay by Helen Deutsch , describing trials and tribulations of the risked sea journey , a fundamental event in American history .
Very good cast plenty of familiar Hollywood faces as Spencer Tracy who has an ill-starred romance with the wife of a religious fanatic well played by Gene Tierney , both of whom had an affair that lasted for the duration of filming .
Support cast is frankly excellent , such as : Leo Genn , John Dehner , Barry Jones , Dawn Addams , Lloyd Bridges , Paul Cavanagh and Van Johnson , though filmmaker Clarence Brown later said casting him was a huge mistake .
The film is well based on historical events , though including some fictitious incidents ; as Dorothy Bradford did indeed fall overboard and was drowned while husband William was exploring for a site for the establishment of Plymouth .
By sticking to straightforward storytelling it gets the job done in a dignified way that retains your interest as the story unfolds.Spencer Tracy is too old and craggy for the romantic scenes with a much younger actress, but utterly dominates the film in a constructive manner through extreme talent and skill.
As usual an amazing demonstration of acting skill by Tracy.Van Johnson, basically a humble, kindly sort of actor is appropriately cast as a poor man in the hard-working carpentry profession.
And on and on I could comment about the triumphs of good casting that add immeasurably to the success of "Plymouth Adventure".The script is not very dynamic, and while not intense in the movie-drama sense, manages to avoid all the maudlin or preachy traps that it could have fallen into.
Helming the famous "Mayflower" ship of colonists is grouchy Spencer Tracy (as Christopher Jones).
Mr. Tracy doesn't let his passengers know they are headed for New England, instead of Virginia.
But, in the end, the local "savages" are more friendly up North, we are told...How these adventurers survived the hellish conditions is revealed to be due to Tracy's forbidden love for the wife of passenger pilgrim Leo Genn, a Godly-clean and good-looking Gene Tierney (as Dorothy Bradford).
Meanwhile, carpenter Van Johnson (as John Alden) ogles pretty Dawn Addams (as Priscilla Mullins)...Here is a prime example of a film that would seem to have everything going for it - but the story floats like a stone.
Lloyd Bridges (as Coppin) is one who doesn't look like a fish out of water.**** Plymouth Adventure (11/14/52) Clarence Brown ~ Spencer Tracy, Gene Tierney, Van Johnson, Lloyd Bridges.
Short on adventure and long on talkiness, this 1952 big-budget release from MGM sinks faster than you can say "Mayflower." Yes, one of the most famous of famous ships is the main character, and it's only slightly more wooden than the cast that climbs aboard and ventures to the new world.
That cast is led by perennial grump Spencer Tracy, who commands the ship and hates all the passengers, until their goody-goodness and preaching about God and opportunity makes him see the error of his ways.
He also happens to be married to Gene Tierney, who's given absolutely nothing to do until she gets to commit suicide, probably to escape from the boredom of the film, in a plot twist that makes absolutely no sense since nothing was done by the screenplay up to that point to establish it.Speaking of the screenplay, the writers must have been paid by the word, because this particular group of passengers talk a LOT about all the things that aren't interesting, while few of the things that would be interesting about a story like this never happen.
The film got the lavish Technicolor treatment from MGM and a sea storm garnered it an Oscar for Best Special Effects, but even if the pilgrims themselves were not dead on arrival, the movie certainly is.Grade: C-.
They think Clarence Brown is like James Cameron, who cares more about the story conforming to a movie than the other way around.
And anytime I can see Gene Tierney's beauty and Spencer Tracy at work,
It's all by Spencer Tracy as a tough old sea captain.MGM spared no expense with this one.
Tracy looks depressed and old; Gene Tierney looks great but the poor woman has nothing to work with; Van Johnson just walks through his role.
All the major characters were well cast, even if Gene Tierney made an unlikely beautiful Dorothy Bradford, whom Tracy, as Captain Christopher Jones, lusted after.
It was her sacrificial death that shortly preceded his changed attitude toward the colonists.John Aldren's flirtation with the comely teen Dawn Addams has possible historical accuracy, as they would eventually marry....Lloyd Bridges is great as Jone's piratical-looking swarthy first mate and enforcer, ready to lead a mutiny when Jones inexplicably decided to stay the winter with the colonists.The long episode of the severe storm is quite riveting.
Of course, the Dutch would soon begin settlements in the NYC-Hudson area.The central love/hate triangle between Jones, William and Dorothy Bradford has no historical support, if much adding to the drama.
Dorothy did die of drowning after disappearing from the Mayflower soon after it docked along Cape Cod. However, there is no clear reason to believe it was a suicide rather than accidental.This accusation originates from a mid-19th century fictional magazine story, presumably repeated in Gebler's novel(which I haven't read).The characterization of Captain Jones as a disagreeable extreme world-weary cynic has no historical support.
Surprisingly, this seaman is not included in the film story, hence probably was incorporated into the Captain's character.Some reviewers think Tracy was too old for the part of Captain Jones.
I assumed that because Hollywood made this film long ago and because there often has been a desire to over-idealize our history that "The Plymouth Adventure" would totally suck--especially since I am a history teacher and HATE historical inaccuracies.
And also, the film fails to really discuss the true cost to the settlers, as they lost half their people in the first year in Plymouth Colony--something the film never mentions, as it ends just after their arrival.The story chronicles the journey from England to the New World and shows the hardships that the passengers and crew endured.
There are two very good moments:the storm -Van Johnson will have known two in the space of 2 years;he'll be on the Caine during the typhoon(the Caine mutiny 1954)- and the little boy who dies with the bird (Noah's dove)in his hand.He ,too,had flown too far from home.Spencer Tracy has a tailor-made part:the grumpy captain with a heart of gold.Gene Tierney's grace and beauty supply the love interest.Her death is quite romantic.The film is somewhat too short and the building of the village and the first winter are botched.An interesting scene shows the birth of a democracy and ideas that 1789 French revolution will rekindle..
This is a film adaption of a novel by Ernest Gebler in which the author threw some things in there that never happened or are the subject of much speculation.Gene Tierney's character of Dorothy Bradford did in fact drown under unknown circumstances, but there is no reason to think it was suicide as opposed to an accident and her yearnings for Captain William Jones of the Mayflower is just part of the Gebler's fertile imagination.
He was certainly imaginative enough giving a little scandalous romance into the Puritan community.Plymouth Adventure is a nice tribute to those brave and hearty souls who set forth into an unknown land in which half of them died the first winter, but those who survived creating an American national tradition in the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Still they were an intrepid lot and their courage is beyond question.Spencer Tracy gives a fine performance as the rugged and cynical sea captain of the Mayflower, the chartered ship which takes the Pilgrims from Southampton to an unknown world.
I think Tracy drew a lot from some of the characters in Eugene O'Neill's plays in his portrayal of Jones.
Could have come from any of O'Neill's works.An Oscar for Best Special Effects went to Plymouth Adventure showing some of the travails at sea the Mayflower went through.
Tracy has been there before when he was in Captains Courageous in spirit so to speak.Players like Van Johnson, Lowell Gilmore, Dawn Addams, Noel Drayton, Barry Jones, Kathleen Lockhart play some of the Pilgrim names come down from historical legend.
Genn who rivaled Ronald Colman as possessor of the most beautiful speaking voice in the English speaking world would be a pleasure to listen to reading the Erie County phone book.My favorite in this is young Tommy Ivo who played William Button the only voyager on the Mayflower to die at sea.
His death scene is a heart string tugging experience.Not the real story of the Mayflower voyage, Plymouth Adventure is still good entertainment and a stirring tribute to those who formalized the giving of thanks and the reasons they had to be thankful..
(There are Spoilers) Recreation of the Pilgrims dangerous voyage to the new world, America, on the good ship Mayflower in the summer and fall of 1620 AD.Put in charge of the Mayflower by England's Virginia Company's Mrs. Weston, Rhys Williams, is that old salt and pragmatic Capt.
It's when Weston gives Jones, under the table, an added bonus of 200 English pounds to steer the Mayflower to the north and uninhabited-by the white man- Cape Cod region of New England that he decides to trick his passengers and crew, all 102 of them, into thinking that he was taking them some 500 miles south to Jamestown Virginia that already had an established English colony.The greedy and criminal minded Mr. Weston was trying to pull a fast one on his employer by buying up all the worthless stock of the almost defunct England's New England Company and cash it in when a colony is established on it's territory with him being the only stock holder.
As things turned out, as history shows up, the trip north made it possible for the future establishment, in 1776, of the United States of America!The dangerous voyage across the almost uncharted Atlantic Ocean had the Mayflower and its passengers and crew face dangers and horrors far worse then they ever dreamed of in their wildest nightmares.
Jones while keeping the ship together and his man, who were on the verge of mutiny, in line soon gets the hots, in her being one of the few women on board, for the very religious pretty and saintly Dorothy Bradford, Jene Tierney, who's husband William, Leo Genn, was also one of the ship's passengers.
The depressed and guilt-ridden Dorothy offed herself just as the Mayflower finally reached land after it's more then three month sail across the wind and storm swept Atlantic Ocean.It's Dorothy Bradford's tragic death that woke the narrow minded and people hating, on the Mayflower, Capt.
Jones in an act of honesty and forgiveness,for himself, finally confessed to Dorothy's husband William that in fact he did try to break up, by him being the other man, their marriage!
Jones' advances would rather kill herself, that too a mortal sin, then betray her husband!Beautiful ocean scenery with a very convincing Mid-Atlantic Ocean storm as well as amazing spacial effect-for 1952-adds to the movie's great acting and historical content.
Jones and Dorothy Bradford that overshadowed all the true events that were depicted in the film "Plymouth Advanture"..
It certainly has a lot going for it -- Tracy, Gene Tierney (whose co-starring role is pivotal, yet smaller than one might expect), Van Johnson, and Leo Genn.
Spencer Tracy comes off waaaaay too dour for most of the film, although that does facilitate his redemption after landing at Plymouth; I would have to say that in regard to that characterization, perhaps the director overdid it.
Leo Genn does well as William Bradford (husband of the Tierney character).
His captain is an angry man who hates all his passengers except Gene Tierney, whom he seduces away from her husband.
Kids, I was compelled to check the "spoilers" box because you -- lacking in curiosity as you are -- might not know that the "Mayflower" was the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed to Boston in 1620.
(Every story of a ship at sea must include a scene of a storm.) All the studio's talent is deployed, including a stellar cast.
Spencer Tracy is Captain Jones, skipper of the Mayflower.
In supporting roles are rough sailor Lloyd Bridges, solemn preacher Leo Genn, civilian carpenter Van Johnson, sturdy diarist and narrator John Dehner, and reliable stalwarts like John Dierkes.There are two problems with the movie, and they're both pretty big.The casting decisions are inexplicable.
PERHAPS WITH AN eye looking back at the success of historical novels having been brought to the screen the form of highly $ucce$$ful films at the Box Office, MGM took this story of the Pilgrioms' flight to the New World and gave it a whirl.
IN MUCH THE same manner, this PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE took some top stars from the MGM stable; adding some new ones and even borrowed Miss Gene Tierney from 20th Century-Fox, just for good measure.
Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson headed up the fine cast; which also included Leo Genn, Dawn Adams, Lloyd Bridges and Welshman, Rhys Williams.AS WITH MANY a "Sure thing-Can't miss" project, it sort of fell short of its expected mark.
The protagonists ranged from the cynical and world weary Captain Jones (Spence), skipper of the Mayflower, to the fine and virtuous-such as portrayed by Miss Tierney and Mr. Genn, to the totally unscrupulous merchant (Rhys Williams)and the insubordinate and mutinous first mate (Lloyd Bridges).
True to the characterization by one William Henry Longfellow, the character of military man, Miles Standish, is relegated to that of comic relief.IN SOME WAYS the movie has the look of a History Channel docudrama, what with the costuming and the sets often seeming to take on more importance than the story line.