The Man Who Was Thursday. Or Friday.

Mutiny on the Bounty (the 1962 Marlon Brando version) was on teevee the other night. The 1935 Clark Gable version is much better–and it’s quite fun on the odd weekend evening to practice my impersonation of Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh. In the privacy of my home. Ahem.

But the ‘62 version is fine. And has better music. And spends more time telling the story of the mutineers’ post-mutiny-ing life on Pitcairn Island.

Which I hadn’t paid much attention to, even after reading the novel and some of the other historical accounts and memorizing various parts of the various movie versions. I’ve always been semi-intrigued that there are still descendants of the mutineers living there (despite the vile things they’re doing that make me think someone should go in and clean the place out), but never really paid attention to those early days.

Like the birth of Fletcher Christian’s son on Pitcairn on a Thursday in October, which resulted in the child being named…Thursday October Christian.

He looks like a Thursday:

Or maybe he looks like a Friday, since some Britishers renamed him when they found that the mutineers didn’t account for the International Date Line.

I find this all fascinating.

Of course, I also practice my impersonation of Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh on the odd weekend evening.