The Captain's Paradise (1953)

For a film with a running time of just over an hour and a half, this contains a lot of filler. It takes an eternity to set up the basic situation, and doesn't do a lot with it when it eventually does. When it does gets going, it does contain some laughs, but not as many as one would expect. Not a total waste of time, but I was left with the feeling that television today would deal with this far more effectively and do it in about half the time.

To be completely honest here, I found this 1953, British, Comedy (about the captain of an international ferry boat who's juggling 2 wives at different ports) to be mighty low on laughs, for the most part. Through scenes of extended flashbacks, the viewer quickly learns how "that-swell-guy", Captain Harry James, was able to keep up his bigamist charade for 7 sweet years until, out of sheer carelessness, the 2 wives inevitably meet up, face-to-face, for a less-than-satisfying showdown. In the case of Harry's 2 wives - One was a prim & proper square, while the other was a let-your-hair-down hoofer. The vast contrast between the characters of these 2 women was, of course, supposed to help heighten the overall comic possibilities of the story. But, I found that this film needed much-much more than that to encourage any genuine laughter out of me. I really don't have much more to say about Captain's Paradise, except to add that its story was atrociously predictable on all counts. Perhaps if you're a fan of British cinema of the 1950s, then you'll enjoy this one more than I did.

HAVING an uncanny ability to get so immersed in any role he took as to seemingly disappear in the film; Alec Guiness bids fair to demonstrate the really great range that he possessed, be it on stage or in front of the camera. Whenever the future Sir Alec is on the screen, he commands one's undivided attention.IN today's honoree film, THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE (London Films/British Lion Film Corporation, 1953), he is the Captain in the title. He runs a ferry boat service that runs between Spanish Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, running to Gibraltar and back. As Captain Henry St. James, he is a very respected citizen on both sides of the run. No one, not even his Chief Officer Ricco (Charles Goldner) suspect him to be anything other than what his chosen outward appearance showed the world.THE STORY begins at the end and uses the narration of the Chief Officer in telling the story; kind of the same way that Mr. Orson Welles did with CITIZEN KANE (Mercury Theatre Production, RKO Radio Pictures, 1949). As the story unfolds we learn that the good Captain is indeed a much busier guy than his very proper, cultured demeanor would reveal.ALL that we'll say here is that he is very busy guy on both ends of his route. All of the great comic sequences come from the mixing of the two worlds; and that starts to happen about a third of the way through the movie.ONCE again, a well cast team of supporting players rise to the occasion in making the approximately 97 minutes seemingly fly by. The cast includes Yvonne DeCarlo, Celia Johnson, Charles Goldner and a young Sebastian Cabot.ADDITIONAL to the studio filmed scenes, extensive location shooting was done in The British Colony of Gibraltar; which makes for as authentic a backdrop as could be found. Fine use of Black & White Film is in evidence; which also gives an appearance of being real life scenes from a newsreel.AS an overview of THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE and an objective review; we can only say good things about it. There seems to be no point that one could point to as being an obvious weakness.ONE couldn't say too much in its favour.SO, whatta ya think, Schultz? How's about a **** rating.POODLE SCHNITZ!!

The Captains Paradise is a charming delightful comedy.Alec Guiness is wonderful as always, this time as a ferry-boat Captain, ferrying between Gibralter & Morrocco,(Kalik in film). he happens to have a wife in Gibralter (Celia Johnson) & a lover in Morrocco (Yvonne deCarlo). Censors at the time did not allow him to have 2 wives at same time. It would be a spoiler to tell you more. This was filmed on location (filming on actual sites was still somewhat of a rarity in 1953. Gibralter & Tangier were very picturesque & it did add to the enjoyment.The running time is only 86 minutes which is perfect timing for this type comedy. If this was made today, they would drag it out to near the 2 hour mark.Rating *** (out of 4) points 88 (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)