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James Norman Hall (1887-1951) | |
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American writer, best-known for the Bounty trilogy, co-authored with Charles Nordhoff. Hall lived in California and Tahiti. He also published poetry, children's books, short stories, and travel books. Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), an archetype of a sea adventure, has been filmed three times. "No men are more conservative than those who design and build ships save those who sail them; and since storms are less frequent at sea than some landsmen suppose, the life of a sailor is principally made up of the daily performances of certain tasks, in certain manners and at certain times." (from Mutiny on the Bounty) James Norman Hall was born at Colfax, Iowa. His father was Arthur Wright Hall, the owner of a mineral water business, and mother Ella Annette (Young) Hall. He attended public schools in Colfax, and entered Grinnell College, Iowa, graduating in 1910. From 1910 to 1914 he was a social worker in Boston, working for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. At the outbreak of World War I, Hall joined the British Army. He served in the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, taking part in the Battle of Loos. His war memoirs Hall published in 1916 under the title Kitcher's Mob and High Adventure. Hall re-enlisted in 1916 as a member of the Lafayette Flying Corps, which was later incorporated into the United States Air Service. During these years he met the Harvard graduate Charles Nordhoff, a pilot serving in the same corps. In 1918 Hall was shot down behind the German lines and he spent the last six months of the war in a prison camp. After the armistice Hall and Nordhoff decided to continue wandering, instead of pursuing promising careers. When they received an advance from Harper's to write travel articles, they moved to Tahiti. "For we meant to have further adventure of one kind or another - adventure in the sense of unexpected incident rather than of hazardous activity," wrote Hall their travel book Faery Lands of the South Seas (1921). Hall continued with travel books and Nordhoff published novels. In 1925 Hall married Sarah Winchester, his friend had married a Polynesian woman a few years before. "Of course, everyone who visited Tahiti heard the rumour that Hall's collaborator, Charles Nordhoff, had supplied the poetic passages in their books and had created the characters, while Hall merely worked out the plot devices and the long narrative portions, but having met Hall and seen the poetry in his eyes when I mentioned specific scenes, I gave no credence to that rumour." (from The World Is My Home by James Michener, 1992) In 1929 appeared Nordhoff's and Hall's jointly written book about flying, Falcons of France. After Hall's suggestion the team started to write Mutiny on the Bounty, the story about charismatic Fletcher Christian and Captain William Bligh. It was based upon factual events, which were almost forgotten, although John Barrows had published in 1831 an account of the mutiny. The authors decided to use Captain Roger Byan as the narrator. He had been a midshipman on the Bounty when the ship proceeded upon orders to collect a cargo of breadfruit trees from Tahiti for an experimental transplantation in the West Indies. During the voyage, Bligh's inhumanity turned out to be more than the usual tyranny of the captain. "I'll take my chances against the law," says Clark Gable (Christian) to Charles Laughton (Blight) in the 1935 film, "you'll take yours against the sea." The second part, Men against the Sea (1933), focused on Bligh, his loyal companions, and their 3500-mile safe return on an twenty-three-foot open longboat. Pitcairn's Island (1934) recounted Christian's journey to an uncharted Pacific island and the later history of the crew members. The last of them were finally discovered in 1808, living peacefully on the island inhabited by their descendants. Films: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). An entertaining adventure film, starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable. "Casting me adrift 3,500 miles from a port of call! You're sending me to my doom, eh? Well, you're wrong, Christian. I'll take this boat, as she floats, to England if I must. I'll live to see you - all of you - hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet..." (Charles Laughton as Bligh). Oscar winner for Best Picture; it is also considered one of Gable's best film. However, the actor had much problems - he had to shave off his mustache and wear wigs and knickers. Laughton obtained exact copies of naval uniforms from Bligh's own surviving London tailor shop. Most of the filming was made off Santa Catalina Island, but much background footage was filmed in Tahitian villages. The ships were copies of the original pair, the HMS Bounty and HMS Pandora. Movita Castaneda, who played the chief's daughter who has the romance with Gable, was later married to Marlon Brando who was Christian in the 1962 remake. - Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). A troubled project, in which Lewis Milestone replaced Carol Reed - scenes also reputedly shot by Andrew Marton, George Seaton, Richard Thorpe, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann. However, also this adptation has its good moments. To create good relationships between the Navy and Pacific natives Trevor Howard tells Brando to make love to Chief Hitihiti's daughter. Brando asks, "Is that an order, sir? Might I have it ended in a log?" and continues tongue-in-cheek: "You see, it is a rather different thing than being asked to fight for one's country." The film ends in Brando's overlong death scene. - The Bounty (1984), starring Anthony Hopkins as Blight and Mel Gibson as Christian. William Bligh is summoned before a court martial to explain the events leading up to the mutiny. Spectacular score by Bronislau Kaper. This production did not have much to do with the Nordhoff-Hall books. The authors' did not repeat the success of the Bounty trilogy. Nordhoff and Hall published six more coauthored novels, although the last three were largely written by Hall. Several of these books were filmed. Hurricane (1936) inspired John Ford's film from 1937, starring Dorothy Lamour and Jon Hall. The story was set on the isle of Manikoora, where the evil French colonial governor brutally rules an island paradise but cannot rule forces of nature. The climatic hurricane sequence was staged by second-unit director James Basevi with the help of associate director Stuart Heisler. Its special effects were unequaled for decades. Otherwise the film was hampered by phony studio settings. The screenwriter Ben Hecht summarized his feelings when he saw its footage: "I think it stinks." Hecht wrote new dialogue scenes that Ford passively shot. The story was remade in 1979. Dino de Laurentiis's production, starring Jason Robards, Mia Farrow, Max von Sydow, and Trevor Howard, was considered by critics a failure. No More Gas (1940 ), a family story, was filmed in 1942 under the title The Tuttles of Tahiti, and Botany Bay (1941), a historical melodrama about the infamous Australian penal colony, in 1952. Hall and Nordhoff repeated the confrontation between a sadistic captain and his young opponent. This time the action was set on a convict ship. Michael Curtiz's film Passage to Marseille, starring Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains and Michele Morgan, was based on the novelette Men Without Country (1942), about convicts who escape from the prison colony of French Guinea to join the Free French forces. The studio delayed the release of the film until February of 1944, waiting for the expected Allied invasion. Peter Lorre played "the worst rogue of the lot," who, nevertheless, dies for the cause. In his later years, Hall wrote for children stories about Dr. F. Dogbody, a peg-legged Royal Navy surgeon, travel essays, narrative poems, and an collection of short stories. In 1950 Hall returned to the United States to accept an honorary doctorate from Grinnell University. Hall died next year in Tahiti. His grave overlooks Matavai Bay. Hall's posthumously published memoirs, My Island Home, appeared in 1952. For further reading: World Authors 1900-1950, vol. 3, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, ed. by Kay Mussell, Alison Light, Aruna Vasudevan (1994); James Norman Hall by R. Roulston (1978); The American Heritage of James Norman Hall by R.L. Johnson (1969); In Search of Paradise: The Nordhoff-Hall Story by P.L. Briand (1966) - See also: James Norman Hall by Robert Roulston Selected works:
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