Excellent but underrated film

Brilliant and touching

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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. Leo Genn gives the film's best performance as the passenger with the best oratorical skills. 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-

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. But neither he nor GENE TIERNEY (as Mrs. Bradford) seem at home in roles that are never really fleshed out by the script. 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. He at least livens up the scene whenever he's around.The main trouble is the lack of strong drama in the script. Most of the passengers are a dull lot. 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. Should have been so much better.

Spencer Tracy is tied right up there with Cary Grant as being my favorite actor. And I like (not love) this film. 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. The scenes at sea are done well, particularly the storm sequences. Yet, somehow, this film seems to come up just a bit short.While it's definitely fictionalized, there's a lot of history here, too. I tend to read up on historical films, and this one seems more realistic with the history than one is used to. Oddly enough, Van Johnson -- in my view an "okay" and "pleasant enough" actor -- probably comes off best of actor in this film. 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. Gene Tierney plays who role well, but I think she might have been disappointed in the scope of it. There appears to be at least a possibility that her character did indeed commit suicide in real life, as portrayed in the film. Leo Genn does well as William Bradford (husband of the Tierney character). Lloyd Bridges isn't quite a swashbuckler here -- too earth for that, but plays his role nicely.So what is it that's missing here. Well, perhaps its that this is a story that should have been inspiring, yet in this rendition seems depressing. A number of Clarence Brown's (director) films are quite notable and enjoyable, and he had worked with Tracy (as Edison) before. But this time the results are disappointing. Interestingly, although this was his last film (1952), he lived another 35 years. Perhaps he realized he no longer had the spark.

(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. Chris Jones, Spencer Tracy, who's only in it for the money and nothing else. 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. Capt. 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. This sinful and forbidden romance, with Capt. Jones doing most of the romancing, between Capt. Jones and Mrs. Bradford is the most interesting part of the movie even though in real life it never really happened. Dorothy later feeling that she cheated on her husband, by just allowing the slobbering Capt. Jones to kiss her, and broke her marriage vowels ended up drowning herself. 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 up to the humanity that he always either denied or kept from himself. No longer the cynical and Godless person that he once was the "Captain" decided to stay with the Pilgrim settlers, whom half of them were to died because of illness and starvation, throughout the harsh and bitter winter of 1620-1621 until spring, and the spring harvest, arrived. Now a new man with love and understanding in his heart for his fellow human beings 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! But in the end it was Dorothy in her eternal love for William, feeling that she was giving in to Capt. 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. Still it was the fictitious relationship between Capt. Jones and Dorothy Bradford that overshadowed all the true events that were depicted in the film "Plymouth Advanture".