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15 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Too Much Marriage, 29 October 2003
10/10
Author: smithy-8 from New Jersey

Alec Guinness made a few silly comedies and "The Captain's Paradise" is the best. Mr. Guinness portrays an international naval captain who is married to two different women at the same time: Celia Johnson as your average housewife and Yvonne De Carlo as your average sexpot. The captain believes he has the perfect life with each wife until he finds out that he doesn't.

It is an adorable movie. Very funny! It read Mr. Guinness enjoyed working with Ms. De Carlo, whom he respected. She taught him to tango for their dancing scenes. This is Ms. De Carlo's best role. Also, this movie gives Ms. Johnson a chance to be funny. She usually is sad in her early movies.

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13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Delightfully sly British comedy, 3 March 1999
Author: otter from Mountain View, Ca.

Ship's captain Alec Guinness seems to have a dull life, he's had the same job for years, taking his ship back and forth between Gibraltar and Morocco. Little does anyone know, that the Captain has worked out his idea of a paradise, he has a wife at either end of the line! In British Gibraltar Cecia Johnson gives him all the comforts of domesticity and respectability, and in Morocco sexy Yvonne DeCarlo gives him... you know. Of course, such a life is doomed to complications, and thereby hangs the plot of the film.

A subtly wicked comedy, a lesser "Kind Hearts and Coronets".

Never really belly-laugh funny, but highly witty and great fun. And I love the ending, it's perfect.

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12 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A piece of paradise, 2 April 2005
9/10
Author: LDRose from United Kingdom

This film is a treat! It is the tale of an English sea Captain (Alec Guiness) who thinks he has devised the perfect arrangement for paradise. He has a wife in two ports - each one half his idea of the perfect woman. His English wife (Celia Johnson) is the dutiful, domestic wife, whilst his Latin wife (Yvonne De Carlo) provides the excitement which he craves. All three play their roles well - Alec Guinness is a delight to watch, making you root for him and at times losing sympathy for him. The two wives appear to be stereotypical characters - but neither is quite as they seem! The script is witty and perceptive and the plot always engaging. I can recommend setting sail for the Captain's Paradise!

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A true comic delight...., 22 July 1999
8/10
Author: Robert D. Ruplenas

It is difficult to choose among the many comic films put out by the Ealing Studios in the 50's & 60's, but The Captain's Paradise ranks right up there. Alec Guinness is at the top of his comic form as the smug Captain Saint James, whose deviously constructed 'paradise' comes crashing down around him. The story, like all the best comedies, is really a morality tale, with the captain getting his comeuppance, but, in the end, still foxily escaping final judgement. A sparklingly witty script and fine ensemble acting make this one a must-see for devotees of British comedy. I never tire of watching this one.

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11 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Lucille Toody's Favorite Movie, 27 February 2005
6/10
Author: theowinthrop from United States

I enjoyed this comedy, which demonstrates that one can't have one's cake and eat it too. Alec Guiness has found that he has a perfect recipe for happiness by being a bigamist. He has one wife in Gibraltar (Celia Johnson) and one in Ceuta (Yvonne De Carlo). As his business is running a ferry service between the two cities he has reason to be gone at least a night or two from either wife. He chooses Celia to mirror the perfect domestic spouse, and Yvonne for the perfect excitement spouse. But in truth both women are increasingly unhappy by the uneven state of their marriages. Johnson wants to go out with her husband to night spots, and De Carlo wants to cook him a dinner, and maybe play some bridge or charades with him. Instead of willingly switching the formula, Guiness foolishly prevents both women from getting their desire, and looses them both. Ironically they never discover he committed bigamy.

It is not as good as "The Lavender Hill Mob", or "The Ladykillers", or "The Man in the White Suit" or "The Horse's Mouth", but it is as good as "The Card". Although admittedly second tier Guiness it is popular. It is also the only film of Guiness's to be mentioned in the television series "Car 54 Where Are You?". Lucille Toody thought it was so romantic. Imagine Gunther with two wives in the Bronx and Queens?

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Simply good clean fun, 18 April 2006
9/10
Author: Tony James from NYC

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Alec Guinness plays a man who believes he has found the secret to happiness - a wife in every port, who each fulfill different needs: the red-blooded good-time girl in North Africa, and the homely matron in Gib. Needless to say, the unraveling starts in the 2nd reel and by the 3rd the cat is well and truly among the pigeons. The twist at the end is breathtaking, and you walk away wishing that you too could pull this off. Typical British fare of the era, no sex, no profanity, just plenty of Alec Guinness Being Alec Guinness - lighthearted fluff, lots of fun. To the person who says they're speaking the "wrong" language - Gibraltar is attached to Spain, and there's quite a bit of it spoken there. What they're speaking in Cali isn't Spanish, but some wonderful melange of Spanish, cod-Arabic, and something else. The implication is that Cali is a Spanish enclave, halfway between Spain (civilised, European), and The Dark Continent (wild, lawless, full of forbidden promise).

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Alec Guinness Does the Bolero!, 14 May 2002
7/10
Author: PolitiCom from San Francisco

One of the more modest comic efforts done during his Ealing Studios period, it features a side of Guinness that his fans have never seen. Dancing the bolero with Yvonne DeCarlo in a North African nightclub, he displays such amazing footwork that it's hard to believe that he didn't have a stunt double. He didn't. This film is a small delight for true Guinness aficianados and well worth the price of a video rental

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10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
such fun!!, 26 January 2005
8/10
Author: film_ophile from boston mass. usa

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.

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A element of paradise not to be overlooked, 19 January 2007
8/10
Author: holy1 from Auckland, ew Zealand

News today of the recent death of Yvonnne De Carlo brings this movie back into my mind. I saw it during a period of my life when I had for several years had few opportunities to go to the movies. I had been a student priest in Rome and movie houses were off limits for us. Away on summer holidays in 1953, I caught up with the movie at a cinema in Vienna that was showing English language movies for the benefit of the English military personnel, part of the post World War II occupation force in the Austrian capital. I was allowed to sneak in.

But quite apart from the fact that it was a welcome interlude in a period of drought in my movie watching life, the movie remains in my memory as one of the cleverest comedies I have seen. Not side splitting, it is true. But excellent English wit. And the final scene is unforgettable.

The movies is entitled "The captain's paradise" Reading the IMDb user's comments, I see they correctly note two reasons why the ship captain's life style was a paradise. His homely English wife in Gibraltar and his party going Spanish wife in North Africa. But there was a third element that none of them seem to note as a factor in the captain's happy situation. At sea, at meal times women are rigidly excluded from the captain's table. Those seated with the captain are diplomats, explorers, scientists and suchlike. All of them males. The third paradise element in the captain's life is the enjoyment of male company and conversation at meals. This link with the film's title needs to be remembered. No wonder the script received an Oscar nomination.

There is one aspect of the movie on which I would like another viewer to enlighten me. How did Yvonne De Carlo come to be in this very English movie ? Today after hearing word of her death I looked in IMDb at her listed appearances. From being Moses' wife in Ten Commandments to being the mother in The Munsters, pretty well every role seems to be in a United States production. How did she find her place in a Ealing comedy? But at least it was a most welcome appearance and I am glad she hopped the Atlantic for this one.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Another Alec Guinness triumph, 20 January 2004
Author: mt-kailash-1 from Ecosse

Amusing film with excellent cast and a rather 'modern' comedy situation of a bigamous sea captain who keeps a wife in each port-racy stuff for 1953.Those puzzled by the Moroccan Spanish-speaking wife should note that the nearest Moroccan port to Gibraltar is Ceuta-which is actually a Spanish territory.

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