Captains Courageous

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

This is the 1937 film based upon the Kipling novel starring Spencer Tracy as a Portuguese fisherman on a sailboat, and directed by Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind, Wizard of Oz). Little rich kid Harvey, played by child actor Freddie Bartholomew, is on a cruise with his rich, detached father, played by Melvyn Douglas, when Harvey falls off the cruise ship, and is picked up by fisherman Tracy.
Tracy takes Harvey back to the ship, where the little bossy rich kid is informed that his requests to be immediately returned back to New York are denied, and they will return to Massachusetts in three months, after they have filled the ship with fish.
I think that you can guess what happens over the course of the three months. The first and second acts of the film are rather predictable, with not much drama. The film is interesting for the scenes at sea. We have the reality television series about fisherman on big boats at sea for long periods of time. Based upon this film, I'd say that the life of a open sea fisherman today is a cakewalk compared to the 30's.
Relatively small sailboats, a kitchen/dining area, multiple bunks, and, well, that is it. No engine room. No restrooms. No radio room. No navigation room. No captain's deck. Small fishing boats are launched into the sea from the sailboat, and fisherman sitting in one of these boats while it is lowered onto waves that return the small fishing boat back to the sailboat looks like bullrides trying to keep from falling off the bull. Except if they fall off, they land in the drink.
The last act is what makes the film worthwhile. For those not familiar with the story or the film, I'll not divulge. In a lesser film, with lesser actors, I think the film could have sunk into melodrama. In order words, if the film was made today.
We also see appearances from Mickey Rooney, as the captain's son, Lionel Barrymore as the ship captain, Charley Grapewin (uncle in Wizard of Oz) as an old salty dog type, and John Carradine, relatively early in his career, before his western/horror phase.
The d.v.d contains little in the way of extras, but the print is above average, as is the soundtrack. It is, of course, full frame. Not a brilliant film, nor a top level film from Hollywood's heyday. But I liked the open ocean scenes, I love Spencer Tracy, whom I continue to believe is probably Hollywood'd finest actor, and an ending that could have been schmaltzy, which the actors, and probably Victor Fleming as director, avoided.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

Topic - Captains Courageous - jamesgarvin 08:38:44 03/27/07 (3)

Re: Captains Courageous - patrickU 12:12:31 03/27/07 (0)

Glad to hear this is on DVD! - C.B. 09:47:44 03/27/07 (1)

Re: Glad to hear this is on DVD! - jamesgarvin 13:57:02 03/27/07 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.