Captains Courageous (1937 film)

Captains Courageous

Film poster
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by Rudyard Kipling (novel)
Starring Freddie Bartholomew
Spencer Tracy
Lionel Barrymore
Melvyn Douglas
Music by Franz Waxman
Cinematography Harold Rosson
Edited by Elmo Veron
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • May 11, 1937 (1937-05-11)
Running time
 115 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,645,000[1]
Box office $3,133,000[1]

Captains Courageous is a 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adventure film. Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling, it had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. The movie was produced by Louis D. Lighton and directed by Victor Fleming. Filmed in black-and-white, Captains Courageous was advertised by MGM as a coming-of-age classic with exciting action sequences.

Plot

Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) is the spoiled son of business tycoon Frank Burton Cheyne (Melvyn Douglas). He is shunned by his classmates at a private boarding school, and eventually suspended for bad behavior. His father therefore takes his son with him on a business trip to Europe via a trans-Atlantic steamship. En route, 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. Harvey fails to persuade captain Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore) to take him ashore, nor can he convince him of his wealth; but the captain offers him a temporary membership in the crew until they return to port, and Harvey eventually accepts. Befriended by Captain Troop's son, Dan (Mickey Rooney), he becomes acclimated to the fishing lifestyle. 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, but the mast cracks and he is plunged into the water. He realizes that he is hopelessly injured, and tells the captain to cut him free. As Manuel says goodbye to Harvey, the captain cuts him free, and Manuel sinks below the water. Eventually, the schooner returns to port and Harvey is reunited with his father, whom he surprises by his own greater maturity.

Tracy and Bartholomew as Manuel and Harvey

Cast

Reception

Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times called the film "another of those grand jobs of moviemaking 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."[2] Variety reported that the Kipling story had "been given splendid production, performance, photography and dramatic composition."[3] 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."[4] 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."[5]

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 version 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.

In popular culture

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 starring Spencer Tracy, 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.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ↑ Nugent, Frank S. (May 12, 1937). "Movie Review: Captains Courageous". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Film reviews". Variety (New York: Variety, Inc.). May 19, 1937. p. 22.
  4. ↑ "Captains Courageous". Harrison's Reports (New York: Harrison's Reports, Inc.): 71. May 1, 1937.
  5. ↑ Mosher, John (May 15, 1937). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker (New York: F-R Publishing Corp.). p. 105.

External links

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