The Captain's Paradise

Plot synopsis:
In early 1950s North Africa, a man (Alec Guinness) is escorted through an angry, clamouring crowd by a platoon of soldiers. They enter a fort and it is clear that he is to be executed. The commander (Peter Bull) orders the men to line up in two rows and gives the order to fire. As the shots ring out, the scene changes to a ferry ship, the "Golden Fleece" in the docks as the passengers embark for the two days' journey to Gibraltar. Amongst the crew, there is much dismay, and the chief officer, Carlos Ricco (Charles Goldner) takes to his cabin with the clear intention of getting drunk. He is interrupted by an elderly gentleman, Lawrence St. James (Miles Malleson), who had come to speak his nephew, Captain Henry St. James on an unspecified, but urgent, matter. He is profoundly shocked to learn that the grief he had encountered on the ship is due to the death of the man he had travelled from England to see. He begs Ricco, to explain what has led to such an event. He learns that his nephew Henry was the prosperous owner and skipper of this small passenger ship which he captained as it ferried regularly to and fro between Gibraltar and Kalique, a port in North Africa.
In Morocco, he lives with his lover, Nita (Yvonne de Carlo) – a young, hot-blooded, exotic lady. She is 13 years younger than he and refers to him as "her Jimmy". He takes her out every night to expensive, fashionable restaurants and night clubs, where they lead a loud and wild lifestyle. In Gibraltar, he shares his life with Maud (Celia Johnson) – his devoting, domesticated wife, just three years his junior – living a respectable, sober existence, and going to bed every night no later than ten o'clock with their cocoa. St James gives Nita lingerie. He gives Maud a vacuum cleaner. Both are delighted. He has found a perfect existence – his paradise.
Growing perhaps complacent, St. James makes a careless mistake. This leads to Ricco, up till then believing Nita to be the captain's wife, discovering that the true Mrs. St James is living in Gibraltar. Ricco is glad to assist St. James in maintaining the deception and is soon called into action when Maud flies to Kalique and by chance meets Nita. St. James arranges to have Maud arrested before she and Nita realise that 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 by. 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 existence. 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 St James discovers Nita's infidelity, he leaves the flat as she continues the argument with her lover, Absalom. Nita shoots and kills her lover. To spare Nita, Captain St. James claims he was the killer.
The execution is then shown, but the firing squad swing their rifles to the left and shoot their commanding officer. St. James hands them money and walks away.

Tags: plot twist, comedy

Review:
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.
It is the tale of an English sea Captain (Alec Guiness) who thinks he has devised the perfect arrangement for paradise.
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 Captains Paradise is a charming delightful comedy.Alec Guiness is wonderful as always, this time as a ferry-boat Captain, ferrying between Gibralter & Morrocco,(Kalik in film).
he happens to have a wife in Gibralter (Celia Johnson) & a lover in Morrocco (Yvonne deCarlo).
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.
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.
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..
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.
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...
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.
He has one wife in Gibraltar (Celia Johnson) and one in Ceuta (Yvonne De Carlo).
Alec Guinness lives "The Captain's Paradise" in this 1953 Ealing light comedy.
Guinness plays the captain of a ferry going from the British colony of Gibraltor to Spanish Morocco, who, according to his chief officer Ricco (Charles Goldner), has found the recipe for true happiness.
Celia Johnson is his British wife, a homemaker and excellent cook.
For one thing, the women become bored with their roles.A very funny film, with an interesting message about roles and how, as people grow older, they want to take on different ones.Guinness is excellent as the happy and then frustrated man in their lives.
And the two wives are perfectly cast.This classic Gunness comedy is included as a bonus film in Anchor Bays boxed set of DVDs, THE GUNNESS COLLECTION, which includes the five Ealing Studio Comedies, "Kind Hearts & Coronets", "The Lavender Hill Mob", The Man in the Whtie Suit" and "The Lady Killers".
Sitting with James' Chief Officer, the man listens to the story behind his execution and hears a tale of an international ferry, a Mrs James in Algeria, a Mrs James in Gibraltar and a man with very different lives depending on his longitude and latitude.With a simple premise this Ealing-style comedy was never going to be a surprise but when it starts with the main character being executed then it at least offers the audience something they didn't expect and it made it more interesting than another version that I had seen involving Jerry Lewis and airhostesses on different flight paths (forget the name).
What is amusing about the subject (James has two wives  one domestic the other a party girl) is that it is still relevant today because men (us) still want a woman to be everything we want (as Ludicrous rhymed recently, "a lady in the street but a freak in the bed") and it is this duality that the film establishes in the two ports to good effect.
De Carlo is sassy and sexy as required (even if her accent is a bit off) and conversely Johnson is the typical Englishman's wife; both play their roles well but also change well when the script requires.
Modern viewers may be a little put off by white actors playing Algerians but it didn't bother me at all and I felt that the support cast did well in support of the lead three.Overall this is a lovely little comedy that is consistently amusing with a nice script and good performances from the main actors.
It isn't too surprising or hilarious but fans of Ealing comedies will enjoy it as a light bit of entertainment..
In The Captain's Paradise Alec Guinness is in the title role and this is a man who thinks he has it made.
Of course the women don't know about each other.In Gibraltar is proper wife and mother to two children Celia Johnson.
With her Guinness wants to go out clubbing and one of the highlights of the film is him doing one wild mambo with DeCarlo.I have to say that Guinness's Henry St. James is one of the most chauvinistic characters I've ever seen portrayed on screen.
Guinness, Johnson, and DeCarlo give superb performances and so does Charles Goldner who plays his first mate on his ferryboat and learns his secret, but keeps it as he admires Guinness's romantic adroitness.A great one for Alec Guinness fans..
Alec Coppel received an Oscar nomination for his original story (thin as it is) regarding a married steamship Captain in Gibraltar--intelligent, multi-lingual, work-oriented, and seemingly stuffy or conservative--who keeps a mistress in Algiers, a red-hot mama who can't cook but dances until dawn!
Resting on Alec Guinness' easy lead performance, the film begins very well and has several comic highlights, one of which is Guinness hitting the dance floor with fiery Yvonne De Carlo.
HAVING an uncanny ability to get so immersed in any role he took as to seemingly disappear in the film; Alec Guiness bids fair to demonstrate the really great range that he possessed, be it on stage or in front of the camera.
Whenever the future Sir Alec is on the screen, he commands one's undivided attention.IN today's honoree film, THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE (London Films/British Lion Film Corporation, 1953), he is the Captain in the title.
The cast includes Yvonne DeCarlo, Celia Johnson, Charles Goldner and a young Sebastian Cabot.ADDITIONAL to the studio filmed scenes, extensive location shooting was done in The British Colony of Gibraltar; which makes for as authentic a backdrop as could be found.
Fine use of Black & White Film is in evidence; which also gives an appearance of being real life scenes from a newsreel.AS an overview of THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE and an objective review; we can only say good things about it.
Everything about this delightful comedy starring Alec Guinness cries out "Ealing Studios" – that factory for genial humor of a more innocent (but still wide awake) time.
So it's not a surprise many commenters here mistake "The Captain's Paradise" as an Ealing production.It isn't, but it's about as close to Ealing in spirit as you can get: Enchanting black-and-white photography that doesn't call attention to itself, fun-making at social strictures, a lead performance by Guinness that alternates between tragic and goofy, and a short running time.
It's a lot better than some Ealings I've seen, if not as great as those two studio pillars, "The Ladykillers" and "Kind Hearts And Coronets."Guinness's character in this film is a ferryboat captain who transports people and cargo from the British island colony of Gibraltar to the coastal enclave of Kalik, where steamy nights and ersatz Spanish are the rule.
The captain's life is much enhanced by the fact he has a lady at each port, one a prim British wife (Celia Johnson) who knows him as Capt.
Henry St. James; the other a fiery Latin flamenco dancer (Yvonne De Carlo) who knows him as "Jimmy.""Two women, each with half the qualities necessary for a man, and therefore quite easy to find," is how he explains his approach to the only man who knows his secret, his ship's first mate Ricco (Charles Goldner).
It's a wonderfully efficient performance, centered by a scene where he hoofs a mean two-step with De Carlo, cigarette dangling lazy from his lips."He who enters paradise must have a golden key," the captain says before another rendezvous with his dancing lover.
That's about as blue as this film gets, though De Carlo flashes some legs and Johnson, well, let's just say she's not as proper as we are led to think.People who criticize "The Captain's Paradise" as sexist or celebrating adultery miss the point.
The actual ending of the film is facile rather than clever, though not unpleasant.People also complain that "Paradise" has a bit of a body count, and fails as comedy for that.
"Captain's Paradise" falls a wee bit short of greatness, but it's quite satisfying in the whole of its various parts, especially for those who like their Guinness with a little spice..
Captain St. James (Alec Guiness) is put against a wall to be shot by a firing squad in Morroco.
It's a tale of bigamy - Captain St. James has a wife Maud (Celia Johnson) in Gibralter and a mistress Nita (Yvonne De Carlo) in Morroco and he captains his passenger ship between these two destinations.This film is OK while you're watching it, although it is quite annoying at the beginning when we have to hear "Hello capitane" spoken by everyone that Guiness encounters.
If you are an Alec Guiness fan, you will like the film.
It fizzles out and there is never any real suspense in the film.The film does have some funny moments - watch how Guiness convinces De Carlo that cooking will destroy her and make her fat and ugly, and there is a nice touch with the photo above his bed on the ship which he can switch between mistress and wife depending on who he is sailing to meet.
There is also a funny moment when Goldner is forced to spontaneously play along with the deception when he meets Celia Johnson for the first time and realizes that she is the wife.
To be completely honest here, I found this 1953, British, Comedy (about the captain of an international ferry boat who's juggling 2 wives at different ports) to be mighty low on laughs, for the most part.
Through scenes of extended flashbacks, the viewer quickly learns how "that-swell-guy", Captain Harry James, was able to keep up his bigamist charade for 7 sweet years until, out of sheer carelessness, the 2 wives inevitably meet up, face-to-face, for a less-than-satisfying showdown.
As in so many comedies of this period, Guinness is marvelous as the bigamist who concocts the perfect wife out of the two women - plain Johnson (in a rare comedic role) as the demure, devoted British woman and beautiful De Carlo (incredibly hot) as the voluptuous Latina.
They have Alec Guiness speaking spanish to his crew (and they regularly go back and forth from Gibralter to North Africa.
This is definitely my favorite British Comedy of the Fifties and like a good comfort food I never get tired of it.The Captain has contrived the perfect life with two wives, the one domestic, the other a night club dancer.
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.
And, as long as no one finds out (especially the wives), then is sure seems ideal according to CAPTAIN'S PARADISE.Alec Guinness plays an unusual role.
He's a captain of a small cruise ship that goes between Gibralter (where he has a very British wife, Celia Johnson) and Spanish Morocco (where he has a wild and adventurous wife, Yvonne DeCarlo).
Both women seem like complete opposites and in the process, Guinness is able to enjoy the best of both worlds--a sedate English-style household and a wild life with a Spanish-speaking bombshell.
So many different languages, and while Guinness is not completely fluid in his pronunciation, he's still pretty good and quite a man of the world--with a strong knowledge of history, cultures and women.
It's a charming and low-key film that is truly unique and works thanks to some excellent performances and direction.By the way, although you wouldn't guess, Miss DeCarlo was a Canadian--nothing like the role she played in this film..
*** This review contains significant spoilers ***This movie was supposed to be funny and we were supposed to enjoy the adventures of Captain St. James, the man who "makes everyone happy." I just couldn't help feeling very annoyed at the bigamous captain and sorry for his unsuspecting wives.
I loved it when the women told them just how unhappy they actually were, but shortly thereafter, one of the wives is murdered -- even this is played for laughs, as our hero uses the confusion surrounding the murder to sneak away.I guess I just don't find bigamy and murder funny.
This isn't emphasized in the film, but the Captain has to step over the commander's body in order to pay off the firing squad.
It's just not funny enough.The captain, Alec Guiness, of a ferry that crosses the Straits of Gibralter regularly, from British Gibralter to fictional Kalika, has a wife on each end of the run, ignorant of one another's existence.
The British wife in Gibralter (Cecilia Johnson) is straight laced, domestic, content, and the couple retire at 10 o'clock every night.Some gags, not especially amusing, are worked in around getting presents for each of the wives mixed up.
Guiness pays them off with lots of money, thanks them, and goes on his way.The end.What it reminded me of, more than anything else, were the cheap black-and-white domestic comedies that Hollywood was producing at the time, most of them now deservedly forgotten.
"The Life of Riley." "Bed Time for Bonzo." Hordes of other pre-television examples whose titles I don't want to bother looking up.If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed, but God forbid you should compare this to the Ealing comedies of the period, like "The Ladykillers.".
For those of you who are fans of Sir Alec Guiness's work and who have not seen this film, my advice is to skip it.
Needless to say, the ship runs a continuous shuttle service from one port to the other.COMMENT: Takes some time to get under way but emerges as a fairly amusing comedy, thanks to the talents of Alec Guinness and Charles Goldner and despite the lack-luster direction of Anthony Kimmins.
Fortunately, the script has a good, basic comedy idea, which Guinness and Goldner exploit to the hilt.
The man is the captain's uncle, and the ship's first mate (I assume) tells the man that the man being executed is the ship's captain, and the uncle asks why, so the first mate explains.The Golden Fleece is a ferry ship regularly sailing between Gibraltar and this North African city, and its captain was married to two wives: one in the city who is a dancer who always has fun, goes dancing, and eats out all the time, and a British wife in Gibraltar who is a dutiful housewife who stays at home and does domestic chores.
You'd think this British captain was Zorba the Greek by the life he tries to lead, leading on two wives (one actually common-law) of different natures and watching it all crash together when the two somehow meet.
The captain is that master of different faces, Sir Alec Guennis, and once again, he proves himself massively versatile in the art of comedy and sly wit.
The women are temperamental Yvonne de Carlo who would have to go to the library to get a recipe for ice cubes and happy homemaker Celia Johnson who couldn't dance a jig to save her life while looking for a lady's restroom.
From the moment you meet de Carlo, you know his goose will be cooked if all ends up being revealed, and with Johnson, he's sure to get fat from all her good food and have to dance it all off when he returns to Yvonne.
Screenwriter Coppel and director Kimmins seem to take forever in setting up the basic premise that skipper Alec Guiness has apparently stumbled on the formula for male happiness, namely a wife in Gibralter and a mistress in Morocco, each providing one half of his ideal woman.
Whilst it's just about feasible that a man would select two women who were total opposites its unlikely that one man would appeal equally to two different kinds of woman and once it has - at last - been established that Celia Johnson is the home-maker par excellence and Yvonne de Carlo the original good time who was had by all it's just a matter of waiting for the respective worms to turn.