Botany Bay (1952)

★ 6.6 1h 33m IMDb

Based on the story of the start of Australia's colonisation. An American medical student is falsely convicted of robbery, with his sentence involving the torturous voyage with other prisoners to the new penal colony at Botany Bay. Because of his attempt to escape, evil Captain Gilbert decides to return him to England on charges of mutiny.

Botany Bay

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Cast

Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd as Hugh Tallant Died 1964 · Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA Alan Walbridge Ladd (September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964) was an American actor and producer known for his cool, understated screen presence and his defining roles in 1940s and 1950s film noir and We...
James Mason
James Mason as Capt. Paul Gilbert Died 1984 · Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK James Neville Mason, known as James Mason, was an accomplished English actor who made a significant impact on both British and American cinema. He was born on May 15, 1909, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire,...
Patricia Medina
Patricia Medina as Sally Munroe Died 2012 · Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK Patricia Paz María Medina(19 July 1919-April 28, 2012) was an English actress, born in Liverpool, England to a Spanish father (Ramón Medina Nebot from Canary Islands) and English mother. She began act...
Cedric Hardwicke
Cedric Hardwicke as Gov. Phillip Died 1964 · Lye, Worcestershire, England, UK Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was a noted English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly fifty years. Hardwicke's theatre work included notable performances...
Murray Matheson
Murray Matheson as Rev. Mortimer Thynne Died 1985 · Casterton, Victoria, Australia Sidney Murray Matheson (1 July 1912 - 25 April 1985) was an American-based Australian actor. He appeared on stage and in films and television programs until 1983..
Anita Sharp-Bolster
Anita Sharp-Bolster as Moll Cudlip (as Anita Bolster) Died 1985 · Glenlohane, Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland Anita Sharp-Bolster (28 August 1895 – 1 June 1985)[1] was an Irish-born American actress who appeared in films and TV series from 1928 to 1978. She was sometimes billed as Anita Bolster..

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 6/10 Jul 17, 2025
Following the death of his parents from the plague, American “Tallant” (Alan Ladd) came back to the mother country only to get embroiled with a crooked inheritance agent and find himself found guilty of stealing his own cash! Transportation was the order of the day, so he is imprisoned in the ship of “Capt. Gilbert” (James Mason) and off they set on the eight month voyage to New South Wales. En route, it soon appears that “Gilbert” might have learned the arts of seamanship from Captain Bligh, so when the decent young “Tallant” falls in with the enigmatic “Sally” (Patricia Medina) he ends up earning the animosity of his host, and after a failed escape attempt is now a marked man. Even though he has a modicum of medical experience and the ship no surgeon, what chance he will make it half way around the world to put his case to the Governor (Sir Cedric Hardwicke)? Mason is on quite decent form as the menacingly jealous officer and Medina does well with a slightly demonic look in her eye but Ladd, he’s as wooden as the mizen mast. He has the all-American football player looks, all right, but as an actor he has all the screen presence of a dead chipmunk. It’s a predictably episodic adventure but whilst all are at sea it’s quite good fun before an ending that is all a bit disappointingly rushed and which I felt rather let it all down. Still, there’s plenty going on, even a keel-hauling, and plenty of folks get clunked on the head or shot or drowned, so it is worth a watch.

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