Captains Courageous
Film poster
Directed byVictor Fleming
Written byJohn Lee Mahin
Marc Connelly
Dale Van Every
Based onCaptains Courageous
1897 novel
by Rudyard Kipling
Produced byLouis D. Lighton
StarringFreddie Bartholomew
Spencer Tracy
Lionel Barrymore
Melvyn Douglas
CinematographyHarold Rosson
Edited byElmo Veron
Music byFranz Waxman
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's Inc.
Release dates
  • May 11, 1937 (1937-05-11) (New York)
  • June 25, 1937 (1937-06-25) (U.S.)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.6 million[1]
Box office$3.1 million[1]

Captains Courageous is a 1937 American adventure film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the 1897 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, the film had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. It was produced by Louis D. Lighton and made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Filmed in black and white, Captains Courageous was advertised by MGM as a coming-of-age classic with exciting action sequences.

Backgrounds and exteriors for the film, which updated the story's setting to the mid-1920s, were shot on location in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Shelburne, Nova Scotia in Canada, and Gloucester, Massachusetts in the United States.[2]

Plot

Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) is the spoiled son of American business tycoon Frank Burton Cheyne (Melvyn Douglas). Harvey is shunned by his classmates at a private boarding school, and eventually suspended for bad behavior. His father therefore takes him on a business trip to Europe, travelling there by trans-Atlantic steamship. Mid-passage, Harvey falls overboard in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. He is rescued by a Portuguese-American fisherman, Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy), and taken aboard the fishing schooner "We're Here", from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Harvey is shocked the schooner's captain, Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore), intends fishing in the Atlantic for three more months. He fails to persuade the captain to take him back to New York nor can he convince him of his wealth; but Captain Troop offers Harvey temporary crew membership until they return to port. Harvey is reluctant to do real work but eventually accepts. Befriended by Captain Troop's son, Dan (Mickey Rooney), he becomes acclimated to the demanding fishing lifestyle. The We're Here fills with fish they catch. When a prank of Harvey's causes a fish hook to lodge in a crewman's arm ("Long Jack", played by John Carradine), Manuel defends the boy.

In the climactic race back to the Gloucester, Massachusetts port against a rival schooner, the Jennie Cushman, Manuel climbs to the top of the mast to furl the sail. However, the mast cracks and he is plunged into the icy sea, tangled in the rigging that will cut him in half. Manuel speaks to the cook in Portuguese and the cook tells the Captain: All the bottom half of him is gone, and he doesn't want the boy to see. He tells the captain to cut him free from the boat, knowing this will kill him. Harvey crawls out on the wreckage, crying and distraught, while the captain strikes blow after blow after blow with the ax until the rigging finally parts. Manuel kisses the cross around his neck and sinks below the water. The schooner returns to port and Harvey is reunited with his father, who is impressed by his son's maturity. Harvey grieves for Manuel, pushing his father away and wanting to stay on the We're Here, but Disko reassures Cheyne, telling him that there is room in Harvey's heart for both men and that once there he “will find Manuel mighty satisfactory company.” At the church, Harvey lights two candles, one from Manuel to his father and one from him to Manuel. His father overhears Harvey praying that someday he will be with Manuel again and follows the boy to Manuel's dory, floating near the ship. Harvey is inconsolable and begs Cheyne to leave him alone.

The next day, in front of the Fisherman's Memorial, he and his father join the Gloucester community in casting bouquets and wreaths on the outgoing tide in tribute to the men and boys lost during this fishing season. The last shot shows the Cheyne's car, speeding down the road with Manuel's dory on a trailer behind. Through the side window, we see that Harvey is laughing and gesturing, regaling his father with stories of his adventures. Dissolve to a close-up of a smiling Manuel and then to the Fisherman's Memorial.[3]

Tracy and Bartholomew as Manuel and Harvey

Cast

Reception

Los Angeles premiere of Captains Courageous (May 17, 1937)

Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called the film "another of those grand jobs of movie-making we have come to expect of Hollywood's most prodigal studio. With its rich production, magnificent marine photography, admirable direction and performances, the film brings vividly to life every page of Kipling's novel and even adds an exciting chapter or two of its own."[4] Variety reported that the Kipling story had "been given splendid production, performance, photography and dramatic composition."[5] Harrison's Reports wrote, "Excellent! It is the type of entertainment that audiences will not forget soon, for its spiritual beauty makes a deep impression on one."[6] John Mosher of The New Yorker called it "as rich a film as you will see this spring ... The picture is magnificent as a sketch of storm and struggle on the ocean."[7]

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $1,688,000 in the US and Canada and $1,445,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $355,000.[1]

Awards

Spencer Tracy won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in this film. The movie was also nominated for three other Academy Awards:

A VHS edition of the 1937 film was released by MGM Home Video in 1990 followed by Warner Home Video's DVD of the film on January 31, 2006.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

Holden Caulfield, protagonist of the 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, is thought to look like Harvey Cheyne, as in the book a prostitute tells Caulfield that he looks like the boy who falls off a boat in a film costarring Melvyn Douglas, though the film is not mentioned by name.

The film is considered a classic semi-documentary record of Grand Banks Schooners fishing under sail. The back projection shots of the period fishing schooners under sail are frequently watched by members of the American Sail Training Community for the sailing shots - rather than for the human plot.

Chris Elliott has stated that Captains Courageous was the inspiration for the film Cabin Boy.

Franco Battiato dedicates a stanza to this film in his song Centro Di Gravità Permanente from his album: La voce del Padrone.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ "AFI|Catalog".
  3. ↑ The movie and the book have very different endings. Harvey's mother rewards Manuel, who does not die, and Harvey's father gives Dan a berth in his clipper fleet.
  4. ↑ Nugent, Frank S. (May 12, 1937). "Movie Review: Captains Courageous". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Film reviews". Variety. New York: Variety, Inc. May 19, 1937. p. 22.
  6. ↑ "Captains Courageous". Harrison's Reports. New York: Harrison's Reports, Inc.: 71 May 1, 1937.
  7. ↑ Mosher, John (May 15, 1937). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p. 105.
  8. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-05.
  9. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
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