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	\| name = The Captain's Paradise		\| name = The Captain's Paradise
	\| caption = Theatrical release poster		\| caption = Theatrical release poster
	\| image = The Captain's Paradise ~~FilmPoster~~.~~jpeg~~		\| image = The Captain's Paradise Film Poster.jpg
	\| director = [[Anthony Kimmins]]		\| director = [[Anthony Kimmins]]
	\| producer = Anthony Kimmins		\| producer = Anthony Kimmins

Kurt at 23:33, 10 September 2024

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	~~{{Short description\|1953 British film by Anthony Kimmins}}~~
	~~{{EngvarB\|date=September 2013}}~~
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=September 2013}}~~
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	\| name = The Captain's Paradise		\| name = The Captain's Paradise
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	*[https://archive.org/details/variety190-1953-06/page/n235/mode/1up/search/%22nicholas+phipps%22?q=%22nicholas+phipps%22 Review of film] at Variety		*[https://archive.org/details/variety190-1953-06/page/n235/mode/1up/search/%22nicholas+phipps%22?q=%22nicholas+phipps%22 Review of film] at Variety
	*[https://archive.org/details/TheCaptainsParadise1953 Entire film] on the [[Internet Archive]]		*[https://archive.org/details/TheCaptainsParadise1953 Entire film] on the [[Internet Archive]]
	~~{{Anthony Kimmins}}~~
	~~{{Alec Coppel}}~~
	~~{{Alexander Korda}}~~

	{{DEFAULTSORT:Captains Paradise, The}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Captains Paradise, The}}

Kurt: 1 revision imported

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en>Tobyhoward: Deleted actors' names from Plot per MOS:FILMPLOT.

2024-07-31T11:06:34Z

Deleted actors' names from Plot per MOS:FILMPLOT.

New page

{{Short description|1953 British film by Anthony Kimmins}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2013}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Captain's Paradise
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| image = The Captain's Paradise FilmPoster.jpeg
| director = [[Anthony Kimmins]]
| producer = Anthony Kimmins
| writer = [[Alec Coppel]] [[Nicholas Phipps]]
| based_on = story by Alec Coppel
| starring = [[Alec Guinness]] [[Celia Johnson]] [[Yvonne De Carlo]]
| music = [[Malcolm Arnold]]
| cinematography = [[Edward Scaife]]
| editing = Gerald Turney-Smith
| studio = [[London Films]]
| distributor = [[British Lion Films]]
| released = {{Film date|1953|06|09|df=yes}}
| runtime = 93 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English Spanish
| gross = £146,548 (UK)<ref>Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p499</ref> $1,050,000 (est.) (US/Canada)<ref name="money"/><ref name="box">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety197-1955-01-05/page/n58/mode/1up|title=1954 Box Office Champs|magazine=Variety Weekly|date=January 5, 1955|page=59}} - figures are rentals in the US and Canada</ref>
}}
'''''The Captain's Paradise''''' is a 1953 British [[comedy film]] produced and directed by [[Anthony Kimmins]], and starring [[Alec Guinness]], [[Yvonne De Carlo]] and [[Celia Johnson]]. Guinness plays the captain of a passenger ship that travels regularly between [[Gibraltar]] and [[Spanish Morocco]]. De Carlo plays his Moroccan wife and Johnson plays his British wife. The film begins at just before the end of the story, which is then told in a series of [[Flashback (narrative)|flashback]]s.

In 1958, the story was made into a Broadway [[musical comedy]], retitled ''[[Oh, Captain!]]''.

== Plot ==
In early 1950s North Africa, a man is escorted through an angry crowd by a platoon of soldiers. They enter a fort, and it is clear he is to be executed. The commander orders the soldiers to line up. He gives them orders to aim and fire. As the shots ring out, the scene shifts to a [[Ferry|ferry ship]], ''The Golden Fleece.'' Passengers [[passenger ship|embark]] for the two-day journey from Morocco to [[Gibraltar]]. Among them is an elderly gentleman, Lawrence St. James, who has come to speak with his nephew, the ship's captain, Henry St. James, on an unspecified matter. He is shocked to learn from the captain's first mate, Carlos Ricco, that he is dead. He begs Ricco to explain what happened. He learns that Henry, the prosperous owner and skipper of the ship, ferried passengers regularly between Gibraltar and North Africa.

In flashback, we witness Henry St. James keeping two separate relationships: (1) In Morocco, he lives with his lover, Nita{{spaced ndash}}a young, tempestuous woman, 23 years younger than himself. He takes her out every night to fashionable restaurants and night clubs, celebrating a wild lifestyle. (2) In Gibraltar, he shares his life with Maud – his devoted wife, 15 years his junior{{spaced ndash}}living a respectable, sober existence, and going to bed every night no later than ten. In Morocco, Henry presents Nita with lingerie and bikinis. But in Gibraltar, he buys Maud a vacuum cleaner. Both are delighted. On board his ship, he rejects all female company, choosing intellectual discussions with male passengers at his Captain's table. He has found a perfect existence{{spaced ndash}}paradise. But it won't last.

All it takes is one careless mistake on the part of Henry. This leads to Ricco, up until then believing Nita to be the captain's wife, discovering that the true Mrs. St. James lives in Gibraltar. Ricco assists St. James in maintaining the deception when Maud flies to Morocco and by chance meets Nita. Henry arranges to have Maud arrested before she and Nita realise they are married to the same man. He convinces Maud that Morocco is a dangerous place and that she should never return there. The years pass. Maud has twins. She is thrilled with her two boys, but when they are sent to school in England, Maud is no longer enamoured with her marriage. She wants to dance and drink gin. On the other hand, Nita wants to stay home and cook for her man. Henry is dismayed and makes every effort to keep everything just the way it was. His attempts to maintain the status quo result in both women taking lovers. When Henry discovers Nita's infidelity, he leaves the flat as she continues the argument with her lover, Absalom. Nita shoots and kills her lover. In order to protect Nita, Henry claims he was the killer.

Return to the execution. Upon being given the order to aim and fire, the soldiers swing their rifles away from Henry and shoot their commanding officer. Henry hands them money and walks away.

== Cast ==

* [[Alec Guinness]] – Captain Henry St. James
* [[Charles Goldner]] – Chief Officer Carlos Ricco
* [[Miles Malleson]] – Lawrence St. James
* [[Yvonne De Carlo]] – Nita
* [[Celia Johnson]] – Maud
* [[Bill Fraser]] – Absalom
* [[Peter Bull]] – Firing-squad commander
* [[Nicholas Phipps]] – The Major
* [[Ambrosine Phillpotts]] – Marjorie
* [[Ferdy Mayne]] – The Sheikh
* [[Sebastian Cabot (actor)|Sebastian Cabot]] – Ali (vendor)
* Arthur Gomez – Chief steward
* [[George Benson (actor)|George Benson]] – Mr. Salmon
* [[Bernard Rebel]] – Mr Wheeler
* [[Joyce Barbour]] – Mrs Reid, the housekeeper
* Claudia Grey – Susan Dailey
* Ann Hefferman – Daphne Bligh
* Walter Crisham – Bob
* [[Roger Delgado]] – Kalikan policeman

==Production==
The film was based on an original story by [[Alec Coppel]]. [[Nicholas Phipps]] wrote the script.<ref>"THE LONDON FILM SCENE: Prize-Winning Movie a Problem to Its Producer -- Money-Maker -- Addenda" By STEPHEN WATTS. ''The New York Times'' 16 May 1954: X5.</ref>

The original title was ''Paradise''. In 1951, it was announced that [[Rex Harrison]] and [[Lilli Palmer]] would star.<ref>BY WAY OF REPORT: MAYHEM AND ROMANCE By A.H. WEILER. The New York Times 6 May 1951: X5.</ref> The following year press reports said [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Vivien Leigh]] were going to star, with Olivier to direct and [[Alex Korda]] to possibly produce.<ref>HEDDA HOPPER: "Donald O'Connor Goes to Metro for 'Melvin'" ''Los Angeles Times'' 31 January 1952: 14.</ref>

Olivier and Leigh became unavailable. According to [[Yvonne De Carlo]], when she was offered her role by director [[Anthony Kimmins]], she agreed to do it if [[Alec Guinness]] played the lead. Kimmins said it was unlikely to get Guinness and that they would probably go for [[Ray Milland]] or [[Michael Wilding]]; De Carlo urged they try Guinness anyway and the actor accepted.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Yvonne|last1=De Carlo|title=Yvonne : an autobiography|url=https://archive.org/details/yvonneautobiogra00deca_0|url-access=registration|last2=Warren|first2=Doug|date=1987|publisher=St Martins Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/yvonneautobiogra00deca_0/page/174 174]|isbn=9780312002176}}</ref> Alec Guinness had a contract with Alex Korda to make one film a year - his casting was announced in ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' in October 1952.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Guinness Signed By Korda|page=11|url=https://archive.org/details/variety188-1952-10/page/n346/mode/1up/search/%22nicholas+phipps%22?q=%22nicholas+phipps%22|date=October 29, 1952}}</ref><ref>"Guinness Credits Success to Luck" Scheuer, Philip K. ''Los Angeles Times'' 23 October 1955: D1.</ref> [[Celia Johnson]] signed to play the other lead.<ref>"Looking at Hollywood: Tracy a Bored Husband in 'Flight to Islands'" HEDDA HOPPER'S STAFF. ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' 28 October 1952: b3.</ref>

Kimmins said: "We're trying to show man's triple side... there's the domestic wife – pipe and slippers side; then the jungle side – the girl-in-port sort of thing. Then there's the conversational, man-to-man side... And naturally we stay tongue in cheek throughout so we don't expect to wreck any homes."<ref>"SCANNING THE LOCAL SCREEN SCENE" By HOWARD THOMPSON. ''New York Times'' 27 September 1953: 123.</ref>

Filming finished in March 1953.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety190-1953-04/page/n17/mode/1up/search/%22anthony+kimmins%22?q=%22anthony+kimmins%22|title=Paradise ends shooting|page=18|date=1 April 1953}}</ref> [[Yvonne De Carlo]] said she enjoyed the film because she "got the chance to act".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48133563 |title=DON IDDON'S AMERICAN DIARY |newspaper=[[The Advertiser (Adelaide)|The Advertiser]] |volume=96 |issue=29,834 |location=Adelaide |date=28 May 1954 |access-date=22 October 2017 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> She found working with Guinness "an exhilarating experience".<ref>De Carlo p. 175</ref>

==Release==
===UK release===
The film was a hit at the British box office.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229415890 |title=DON IDDON'S New York Diary |newspaper=[[The Sun (Sydney)|The Sun]] |issue=13795 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 April 1954 |access-date=22 October 2017 |page=26 (LATE FINAL EXTRA) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

===US release===
The film was refused approval by the US Production Code on the ground it was immoral because the lead character was a bigamist. An extra scene was shot to say St James only lived with Nita in North Africa, he was not married to her, he was only married to Maud. This allowed the film to be released.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article100183870 |title=Sees herself as a new Jean Arthur |newspaper=[[The Sunday Mail (Brisbane)|Sunday Mail]] |location=Queensland, Australia |date=13 December 1953 |access-date=22 October 2017 |page=33 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Adultery vs Bigamy|url=https://archive.org/details/variety192-1953-10/page/n2|date=7 October 1953|page=7}}</ref>

There were further issues with censors in the US. The film was banned in Maryland because it "made light of marriage".<ref>"Alec Guinness Film Banned In Maryland" ''The Washington Post'' 25 Nov 1953: 33.</ref>

Eventually further changes were made. A line referring to Guinness' character as a "saint" was cut, and an epilogue added to the end which stated the film was only a fairytale.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134913697 |title=Film Censorship Gets Rude Jolts |newspaper=[[Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate]] |issue=24,123 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=30 January 1954 |access-date=22 October 2017 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

The movie was seen widely in the USA. A ''Variety'' article in January 1954 said:
<blockquote>Rising popularity of Britain's Alec Guinness among U. S. pic audiences is reflected in the fact that... [the film] is expected to outgross all that has gone before it... it has grossed $350,000 so far in 29 dates and is being helped along also by its much publicized difficulties with both the Production Code and local censors. If it continues its present pace, “Paradise” may gross more than the three prior Guinness pix together. “Lavender Hill Mob” so far has done $580,000; “Man in the White Suit” $460,000, and “The Promoter” $480,000.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Alec Guinness Now Money Star in US|url=https://archive.org/details/variety193-1954-01/page/n293|page=2|date=January 13, 1954}}</ref></blockquote>
In April 1954, ''Variety'' observed:
<blockquote>Guinness films have usually won praise from the key-city critics but until now had limited pull beyond the “art" circuit. But with his current “Captain's Paradise” he's now bigtime b.o. Pic... figures to ring up $1,000,000 in theatre rentals in the U. S. and Canada...“Paradise" has chalked up $630,000 in distribution loot in less than 1,500 dates. UA figures the film is a cinch to play a total of 5,000 bookings— exhibitor deals are being set at the rate of over 200 a week — and on this basis the $1,000,000 in total rentals looks for sure. Pic has been an especially remarkable click at the Paris Theatre, N.. Y., where the run is now in its 30th week and likely will continue for about another month.<ref name="money">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety194-1954-04/page/n134|title=Guinness' million gross in the US|page=7|magazine=Variety|date=21 April 1954}}</ref></blockquote>
By November 1954 it had earned $900,000.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety196-1954-11/page/n140/mode/1up?q=%22eddy+duchin+story%22+%22george+sidney%22|magazine=Variety|title=Lively Indie Bids for 'Young Lovers'|date=17 Nov 1954|page=5}}</ref>

== Critical reviews ==
In the Winter 2022/3 edition of The UK's Media Education Journal Colin McArthur in an essay 'Unacknowledged Parable of (de)Colonialisation' he explores the film in terms of its 'serious account of the inevitability of decolonialisation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McArthur |first=Colin |date=2022–23 |title=The Captain's Paradise (1953) Unacknowledged Parable of (De)Colonialisation |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0268419500032803 |journal=Media Education Journal |volume= |issue=72 |pages=4–7 |doi= 10.1017/s0268419500032803|issn=0268-1951}}</ref>

== DVD ==
Included as part of the ''Alec Guinness Collection'',''The Captain's Paradise'' was released on DVD in September 2002.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|0045607}}
* {{TCMDb title|70258}}
*[https://archive.org/details/variety190-1953-06/page/n235/mode/1up/search/%22nicholas+phipps%22?q=%22nicholas+phipps%22 Review of film] at Variety
*[https://archive.org/details/TheCaptainsParadise1953 Entire film] on the [[Internet Archive]]
{{Anthony Kimmins}}
{{Alec Coppel}}
{{Alexander Korda}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Captains Paradise, The}}
[[Category:1953 films]]
[[Category:British comedy films]]
[[Category:1953 comedy films]]
[[Category:London Films films]]
[[Category:Films about capital punishment]]
[[Category:Films about polygamy]]
[[Category:Films directed by Anthony Kimmins]]
[[Category:Films shot in Gibraltar]]
[[Category:Films scored by Malcolm Arnold]]
[[Category:Films about con artists]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1950s British films]]
[[Category:English-language comedy films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Alec Coppel]]

The Captain's Paradise - Revision history

Kurt at 16:33, 14 September 2024

Kurt at 23:33, 10 September 2024

Kurt: 1 revision imported

en>Tobyhoward: Deleted actors' names from Plot per MOS:FILMPLOT.