The Captain's Paradise (1953)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Anthony Kimmins

Writers:

Alec Coppel (story)
Alec Coppel (writer) ...

Release Date:

28 September 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

He makes two-timing an art...and gets away with it

Plot:

The bigamist captain of a ferry boat between the restricted British colony in Gibralter and Spanish Morocco has a woman of differing appeal and temperament in each port.

Plot Keywords:

Morocco | Ferry Boat | Tangiers | Bigamist | Gibraltar

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Alec Guinness	...	Capt. Henry St. James
Yvonne De Carlo	...	Nita St. James
Celia Johnson	...	Maud St. James
Charles Goldner	...	Chief Officer Ricco
Miles Malleson	...	Lawrence St. James
Walter Crisham	...	Bob
Nicholas Phipps	...	The Major
Bill Fraser	...	Absalom (taxi driver)
Ferdy Mayne	...	The Sheikh
Sebastian Cabot	...	Ali (vendor)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Adair	...	Customs official #3
Joss Ambler	...	Prof. Ebbart
Paul Armstrong	...	Deck officer
Michael Balfour	...	Customs official #2
Joyce Barbour	...	Mrs. Reid (housekeeper)
George Benson	...	Mr. Salmon
Peter Bull	...	Kalikan firing-squad officer
Roger Delgado	...	Kalikan policeman
Jacinta Dicks	...	Flower seller
Victor Fairley	...	Customs official #1
Catherina Ferraz	...	Shopkeeper
Arthur Gomez	...	Chief steward
Claudia Grey	...	Susan Dailey
Armand Guinle	...	Chief engineer
Ann Hefferman	...	Daphne Bligh
Raymond Hoole	...	Storekeeper
Tutte Lemkow	...	Principal dancer
Henry B. Longhurst	...	Prof. Killick
Andreas Malandrinos	...	Maitre d'Hotel (as Andre Malandrinos)
Alejandro Martínez	...	Guitarist
Ambrosine Phillpotts	...	Majorie (with the major)
Bernard Rebel	...	Mr. Wheeler

Also Known As:

Paradise
The Captain's Progress
Capitaine Paradis (France) [fr]
Der Schlüssel zum Paradies (West Germany) [de]
Der Weg zum Paradies (Austria) [de]
El paraíso del capitán (Spain) [es]
Het paradijs van de kapitein (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Il paradiso del capitano Holland (Italy) [it]
Kapteenin paratiisi (Finland) [fi]
Kaptens paradis (Sweden) [sv]
Le paradis du capitaine (Belgium: French title) [fr]
O kapetanios me tis dyo gynaikes (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1990)

Filming Locations:

Gibraltar

Company:

London Film Productions

Trivia:

Professional dancer Yvonne De Carlo persuaded director Anthony Kimmins to talk Alec Guinness into doing the mambo with her in a night club sequence. Guinness, not usually thought of as a physical actor, consented to a week's worth of dance lessons from De Carlo and the sequence is one of the film's highlights.

Quotes:

Maud St. James: [delighted with her new vacuum cleaner] When you go off on your old ship tomorrow, I'm going to plug this in and give this house the biggest spring cleaning it's ever had.
Capt. Henry St. James: That's the girl! Man toils and women spins.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Coffee, Tea or Me? (1973) (TV)

such fun!!

i just got this through my local library as part of a goal to see much more of alec guinness's work. it was much better than even i had hoped. the writing is excellent and has caused me to seek out more films by the screenwriter, alec coppel. the film begins with a rich premise: a cruise ship's captain has worked out for himself a paradisical life by keeping two wives, one in gibraltar and one across the bay(?) in ceuta. guinness has determined that 'it's impossible to find a perfect woman' so he has chosen these two wives,each of whom embodies 'half of a perfect woman'. the British wife is dull and dutiful, cooking and keeping house, and when he's with her he leads a quiet boring life and goes to bed each night at 10pm. but when he's with his Latin-looking sexy dancer-wife, he keeps a totally opposite lifestyle- eating out with his wife every night, drinking , dancing, and cavorting in midnight swims... what a hoot! but eventually ' he gets a little sloppy' and a demise is in the works.... the plot's turn is very surprising(given the era) and satisfying. an 8 for me.