Customer Reviews

The Captain's Paradise

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently purchased The Horse's Mouth (1958) from Amazon as well as "The Alec Guinness Collection" which includes The Captain's Paradise (1953) plus four others: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955). Frankly, I was amazed how well each of the six films has held up since I first saw it.

Although I do not rank The Captain's Paradise in the highest echelon of Guinness' comedies, his character is nonetheless a highly entertaining variation on Thurber's Walter Mitty. As the film begins, Captain Henry St. James seems to be having his cake and eating it too. In a word, bigamy. He has Maud in Gibraltar (played by Celia Johnson) and Nita (played by Yvonne de Carlo) in North Africa. This ship's captain has not only a girl but a devoted wife in each port. Working with a script by Alex Coppel-Nicholas Phipps and directed by Anthony Kimmins, Guinness is in fine form as both the prim and proper husband of homebody Maud and the night clubbing companion of the sultry Nita. One of the oldest and most effective of comic devices is the role reversal. In reality, Maud yearns to be viewed as St. James sees Nita and Nita...you get the idea. That is the basic conceit of this delightful film.

The plot developments accelerate when St. James purchases what he deems to be appropriate gifts for his two wives, only to get them mixed up and inadvertently gives the wrong one to each. Their reactions threaten his paradise. How does he handle the crisis? What is his situation as the film ends? And are there any lessons to be learned from all this? Judge for yourself. One final point: If you have not already seen this and the other four films in "The Alec Guinness Collection," I envy you. I really do.

A deft, charming dark comedy featuring Alec Guinness as a crafty sea captain who has achieved the ultimate male chauvinist dream: the foolproof scheme to cheat on his wife. Wives, actually. He has one in each port -- a dowdy, respectable English frump stowed away in Gilbralter, and a wild, exotic hottie at his love shack in Tangiers. Complications ensue, of course, and while the subtext of sexist humor may be dated or offensive, the script is quite skillful and the performances grand. A lot of attention will go to Yvonne De Carlo, who plays Alec's Latin lady, but the plum comedic role goes to English actress Celia Johnson, who liberates her mousy character with an economical and hilarious transformation. Guinness is great, too... but you knew that already, right? A very funny film.

"The Captain's Paradise" (1953) exists primarily as a showcase for Alec Guinness, whose masterful characterization dominates this uneven bigamist farce. Yvonne De Carlo also shines in one of her best roles as Guinness' red-hot Moroccan spouse, with Celia Johnson memorably playing the British wife in port. The dance sequence between Guinness and De Carlo is a standout. Alec Coppel's screenplay received an Oscar nomination.

The reviewer called "da dolphin boy" wanted to like the film but could not, because of the captain's smugly superior attitude to women. I saw the film and liked it, largely because of the ending. (NOTE: I prefer what I take to be the American version (with "dumplings" rather than "risssoles"), for a few modifications in portraying the captain's attitude, but I would defend either one.) (Warning: SPOILERS ahead.) The captain treats each woman as one aspect of the complete, perfect companion. But eventually, both women rebel, refuse to be regarded as less than complete human beings, and dump him. Thus his chauvinism receives its just punishment. But to have shown him utterly destroyed would have left the audience sympathetic, and would have weakened the moral rather then strengthening it. Instead, he makes amends of sorts to both women, and is punished less severely than he could have been, which is an appropriate twist for a comedy. And it is a comedy, and a hilarious one.

The Captain's Paradise (1953), is another brisk, (94 minutes), silly little black and white classic of English comedy that could, I guess best be classified as a romantic comedy. It's witty, and rather high-concept, with a plot that's a seamless sweetly spun sly confection, and was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar. It stars the uber-talented Alec Guinness. (He was, at this time, rather early in his career, considered a comic actor--see Kind Hearts and Coronets - (The Criterion Collection); but he would win a Best Actor Oscar in the late 1950's for The Bridge on the River Kwai (Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray], and then become internationally famous, as never before, in Star Wars Trilogy.) Here he plays the title part in the movie, a part that might have been tailored just for him: Mediterranean ferryboat captain Henry St. James. The Captain has things nicely organized for himself, thank you very much: He's got a loving, conventional, "veddy" English wife Maud (Celia Johnson, Brief Encounter - Criterion Collection) in the restricted British colony of Gibraltar; and a possessive, hot-blooded mistress Nita (Yvonne De Carlo,McLintock!), in Spanish Morocco. It's a perfect arrangement, as long as he can keep them apart. But what happens when one woman decides to follow him to the other port?

Guinness is said to have respected, and enjoyed working with De Carlo, who is said to have found this one of her best roles. She had supposedly been a professional dancer, and is said to have taught him the tango for their memorable dance scene. Furthermore, this movie allows Johnson a chance to give her hanky a rest: she doesn't cry once. Guinness has also got some strong supporting players in this one. Miles Malleson (KIND HEARTS) plays Lawrence St. James; Charles Goldner plays Chief Officer Ricco; Bill Fraser is Absalom, the taxi driver. Sebastian Cabot (Family Affair: The Complete Series) is Ali, the vendor. The movie was filmed on location at Gibraltar, and at Shepperton Studios; it was not made by Ealing Studios, powerhouse of British comedy in the 1950s. The movie was remade as a mediocre TV entertainment, centered upon an airline stewardess, titled COFFEE, TEA OR ME, in 1973. CAPTAINS PARADISE is a well-known and much-honored movie. It's sexist, of course, but I wouldn't go getting all bent out of shape about that. It's quite entertaining, and surely worth a look, though not necessarily a purchase.

"The Captain's Paradise" is a very droll comedy in which Alec Guinness plays against type as a sophisticated Don Juan with 2 women in his life, each representing the 2 halves, in his words, of the perfect woman. One is Celia Johnson ,the proper little English housewife, drab, unimaginative, eager to please and sexless. The other is continental Yvonne De Carlo, sexy, flamboyant and exciting. The film ran into problems with the censors when it was released in America and it is easy to see why because it covers adultery and suggests bigamy. If the script is full of sexist cliches, who cares.

This is one film where Guinness's renowned versatility is outshone by the woman. Underrated De Carlo is hilarious, beautifully balancing her sex appeal with a very feminine warmth while Johnson's eager attempts to please are a standout. The film is very well made and the story unfolds logically building to a climax but a rather silly denouement. There is a very funny running gag about rissoles.

The DVD print is pristine but the extras are spartan. The original trailer is included plus a brief biographical essay on Guinness. The best is the insert in the DVD case which is a neat summary of interesting background to the the making of the film, particularly the problems with the censor.

The DVD is good value if purchased as part of an Alec Guinness Collection.

This screwball farce must have been quite provocative in it's day but would be considered tame by today's standards. There's still alot to enjoy here even though the film doesn't attain the classic heights of Alec Guiness' Ealing work. It's kind of a departure for Guiness to play such an amoral heel and he seems to relish it. And he does a mean flamenco as demonstrated in his scenes with Yvonne DeCarlo. Speaking of DeCarlo, she's a revelation here as the saucy Spanish vixen that Guiness' captain has holed up in Tangiers. She not only smolders onscreen but she has a deft comic touch. Celia Johnson is good as well as the proper English wife that Guiness assumes is content with the role he prescribes for her. On the whole a consistently funny film. Watch for a clever twist at the end that took me by surprise because there is no way it would have passed American censors at that time and took me aback that it passed British censors.

The ascending career of Alec Guiness experienced in this movie another magisterial leap He was the fortunate actor who participated in the golden ages of the British Comedy (The lady killers, Kind hearts and cornets, The lavender hill mob, The man in the white suit), consolidating an unusual artistic and promising sum of positive results and extraordinary scripts that would seem to be made thinking about him.

An admirable and clever script around the perfect path of total happiness, when a captain gets in one of his two women the perfect complement of the other one. The perfect housewife in Gibraltar and the sensual, erotic and alluring fire of Yvonne de Carlo in Kalik. He is the fortunate captain with two loves in each port. His engaging personality allows him to maintain this curious and ambivalent stage; a double moral happily masked beneath his undeniable charisma. But the feared day at last arrives for him to fade his delicate equilibrium, when the things seems to miscarry and even inversing. Each one of them decides to renounce the costume 's law.

Consider this picture as one of the most imaginative, funny and delicious British comedies ever made. A kinetic script and the presence of a towering cast and brilliant direction will captive you from start to finish.

Among all Guinness's extraordinary efforts in the 1950's, Captain's Paradise surely ranks with the best of them. It's not so much his performance which triumphs as much as the film itself, with an innovative and easy to follow story structure that surprised me. The thing you've gotta love about British comedies is they are so literate yet easy to follow. The writing is just so solid. As they say in Hollywood, it's a "high concept" story, well executed, as it were.

Guinness as Captain Henry St. James seems to have the best of everything as he shuttles between Gibraltar and Morocco on his passenger vessel, enjoying the life of an intellectual yet bon vivant Captain both aboard his vessel and with his sultry girlfriend in Tangier or something (played with lusty gusto by the ravishing Yvonne De Carlo!) and a more placid married life with his obedient wife (Celia Johnson) back in the British territory of Gibraltar. It is the strong male fantasy element that kept me coming back for more.

From the tender mercies of a firing squad to the miserable life of the two-timing bigamist (the flamenco dancing scene with Guinness and DeCarlo was the best!), Paradise is a film full of invidious and cross-cultural comparisons placed in an amusing and comical light. It's supposedly "male-chauvinist" investigation into the nature of marriage and relationships, with the Euro-British twist, is particularly enlightening. What is most unusual about the film is that, unlike most situation comedies, it takes place over a significant span of time -- time enough for his ladies to change their stripes.

While Anthony Kimmins is not a famous director, I like his transparent, easy-going style, and his use of straight-on closeups was excellent. Kimmins doesn't get in the way of the story at all.

The only bad thing I can say about this film is the ending to the story is not fully resolved, just implied. They skipped over some details in the interest of achieving a brisk 96 minutes. That's OK.

I could hear foreshadowings of "Bridge on the River Kwai" in that excellent score by Malcolm Arnold (who scored both films -- many of the same "climbing dread" chord progressions), plus the fact that Guinness is also, in this film, a commander in uniform, once again reminds me of Kwai.

For the infinitely malleable Guinness (this time in the sneaky rascal mold), and the very delicious, sexy Yvonne DeCarlo, this is a film you don't want to miss. Highly entertaining.

In this delightful British comedy, Alec Guinness is Henry St. James, the captain of a steam ship between Gibraltar and North Africa. In North Africa waits his wife Nita (Yvonne de Carlo), a beautiful hot blooded spitfire with whom he dances the nights away and drinks champagne. In Gibraltar waits his prim and proper wife Maud (Celia Johnson) - a woman delighted with a new vacuum cleaner as an anniversary gift.

With Maud, St. James has home-cooked meals and a mug of hot chocolate before promptly turning in at 10:00. The only one in on the captain's double life is his envious first mate. All is well until each woman begins to want what the other has. All three leads are completely winning and surprising.