John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones is a 1959 biographical adventure film from Warner Bros. Pictures, filmed in the Technirama process, about the American Revolutionary War naval hero. The film, shot in Dénia, Spain, was produced by Samuel Bronston and directed by John Farrow, from a screenplay by John Farrow, Ben Hecht, and Jesse Lasky Jr. The film is based on the story Nor'wester by Clements Ripley. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography was by Michel Kelber. It was the final film directed by Farrow. The film stars Robert Stack (in the title role), Marisa Pavan, Charles Coburn, Macdonald Carey, Jean-Pierre Aumont, David Farrar, Peter Cushing, Basil Sydney, and Thomas Gomez. The director's daughter and son Mia Farrow and John Charles Farrow also make their feature film debuts. Bette Davis made a cameo appearance as Empress Catherine the Great. Plot On screen narration opens with a United States Navy officer telling new midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy the story of John Paul Jones (played as an adult by Robert Stack). In 1759, twelve-year old John Paul (John Charles Farrow) attacks an English officer trying to enforce English laws against bagpipe playing and wearing kilts, symbols of Scottish nationalism. John Paul becomes an apprentice, serving on several ships, becoming an experienced navigator by age 17 and by 1773 becoming master of a ship in the British West Indies. A fight with a mutinous crew member results in the mutineer's death, but because of the sailor's family connections, the governor of Tobago (Basil Sydney) advises Paul to leave and change his name. Paul adds a new surname, becoming "John Paul Jones," and goes to visit a brother who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia.