Louis B. Mayer reportedly disliked the script. "Where's the romance?" was his reported complaint. Clark Gable initially objected to playing Christian but was talked into it by executive E.J. Mannix who told him he'd be "... the only guy in the picture who gets anything to do with a dame."
Wallace Beery turned down the role of Capt Bligh because he didn't like Clark Gable and didn't want to be stuck on a long location shoot with him.
Cary Grant eagerly sought the role of Midshipman Roger Byam, but the part went to Franchot Tone instead.
Clark Gable disliked wearing knee-breeches, because he found them "effeminate."
Clark Gable had to shave off his trademark mustache for this film for historical accuracy. Mustaches were not allowed in the Royal Navy during the time the story takes place.
Clark Gable initially felt he was badly miscast as an English naval lieutenant in an historical epic. However, he later said he believed this was the best movie he had starred in.
Clark Gable was initially disappointed when Franchot Tone was cast as Byam. The two actors had been bitter rivals for the affections of Joan Crawford, and did not like each other at all. However, during filming Gable surprisingly became close friends with Tone when they discovered a mutual interest in alcohol and women, both of which were abundantly available in Avalon, the island of Catalina's famous pleasure town.
Irving Thalberg cast Clark Gable and Charles Laughton together in the hope that they would hate each other, making their on screen sparring more lifelike. He knew that Gable, a notorious homophobe, would not care for Laughton's overt homosexuality and would feel inferior to the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor. Relations between the two stars broke down completely after Laughton brought his muscular boyfriend to the island as his personal masseur. They were an obviously devoted couple and would go everywhere together, while Gable would turn away in disgust. In addition, Laughton felt that he should have won the Best Actor Oscar for The Barretts of Wimpole Street. In the event, he was not even nominated and the award went to Gable for It Happened One Night.
Charles Laughton, playing William Bligh, who performed one of the world's greatest feats of navigation after having been cast adrift at sea by the Bounty mutineers, was in reality terrified of the ocean and was violently seasick throughout most of the filming.
2nd unit assistant cameraman Glenn Strong died when a barge with 55 crewmen and staff members capsized while shooting exterior scenes.
Actor James Cagney was sailing his boat off of Catalina Island, California, and passed the area where the film's crew was shooting aboard the Bounty replica. Cagney called to director Frank Lloyd, an old friend, and said that he was on vacation and could use a couple of bucks, and asked if Lloyd had any work for him. Lloyd put him into a sailor's uniform, and Cagney spent the rest of the day as an extra playing a sailor aboard the Bounty.
An additional tragedy nearly occurred during filming when an 18-foot replica of the Bounty with two crewmen aboard separated from its tow and was adrift for two days before being found by a search party.
During filming Clark Gable and Franchot Tone were said to have become romantically involved with Mamo Clark and Movita, who played their girlfriends in the movie.
In order to break the ice before shooting, Clark Gable, apparently unaware of co-star Charles Laughton's homosexuality, took him to a brothel. Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester always said that Laughton was nevertheless "flattered" by this gesture.
MGM wanted Cary Grant to play Byam, but Grant was under contract to Paramount, which refused to release him.
The "Pacific Queen" shown in this film is actually a 19th-century ship, originally called the "Balclutha" (although later renamed the "Star of Alaska"). This ship, renamed to its original "Balclutha", can now be found at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco as part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
The Bounty and Pandora were actual life size ships that were built from two old wooden schooners. The builders added outer ribs and frames to the hulls to get the correct width and after replanking them added concrete inside as ballast. Then they were given three masts and rigged in authentic 18th. century style. A 27 foot long model was burned at the end of the film. It was an exact replica of the life size Bounty, but 1-5th of its actual size.
The character of Dr. Bacchus, who was a highly-functioning alcoholic, shares his name with the ancient Roman god of wine.
The film was based on a trilogy written by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall: "Mutiny on the Bounty", "Men Against the Sea" and "Pitcairn's Island", although events in the last book weren't filmed. Director Frank Lloyd wanted to film a sequel called "Captain Bligh" with Charles Laughton about Bligh's career as governor of an Australian penal colony, but that film was never made.