Plymouth Adventure is a 1952 American Technicolor historical drama film with an ensemble cast starring Spencer Tracy, Gene Tierney, Van Johnson and Leo Genn, made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Clarence Brown, and produced by Dore Schary. The screenplay was adapted by Helen Deutsch from the 1950 novel The Voyage of the Mayflower by Ernest Gébler. The supporting cast includes Barry Jones, Dawn Addams, Lloyd Bridges and John Dehner.

Plot

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”.

Awards