jongibbo
For a film with a running time of just over an hour and a half, this contains a lot of filler. It takes an eternity to set up the basic situation, and doesn't do a lot with it when it eventually does. When it does gets going, it does contain some laughs, but not as many as one would expect. Not a total waste of time, but I was left with the feeling that television today would deal with this far more effectively and do it in about half the time.
Dalbert Pringle
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. In the case of Harry's 2 wives - One was a prim & proper square, while the other was a let-your-hair-down hoofer. The vast contrast between the characters of these 2 women was, of course, supposed to help heighten the overall comic possibilities of the story. But, I found that this film needed much-much more than that to encourage any genuine laughter out of me. I really don't have much more to say about Captain's Paradise, except to add that its story was atrociously predictable on all counts. Perhaps if you're a fan of British cinema of the 1950s, then you'll enjoy this one more than I did.
Reb9
For some reason I had never gotten around to seeing this film. Unusual for me since I have been a Guiness fan for many years. Now I find that I am rather sorry I bothered. It fails completely as comedy and can only have been reviewed favorably at the time of it's release due to the performances -- all good in a poor cause! The problem begins with a screen play that is strained at every turn. The major flaw is that the Guiness character is a totally unlikable sort. A selfish, petty little man who uses people with little care for them. Not even the great Alec Guiness can manage to make this fellow one that we give two hoots in hell about. The film suffers further from one of the very worst musical scores I have ever heard. It is loud, frantic, intrusive, and very ugly. In the final analysis this is one of the most tedious films I have ever sat through (and I love movies and have seen many in my seventy plus years). I note that a number of those commenting have attributed this film to Ealing Studios. It isn't. It was produced by London Productions (see the details on the main page for this film). 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. Watching it will simply disappoint you.
moonspinner55
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. But when the Captain's cooped-up wifey decides she wants more excitement in her life--and the mistress expresses a sudden desire for a life of domesticity--the picture hasn't any place left to go. Framed in flashback for expository purposes, Coppel's script with Nicholas Phipps has a handful of amusing ideas, the rest being rather obvious and silly (though perhaps not in 1953). Guinness, looking snappy and comically striking, nearly keeps the picture afloat with his panache. ** from ****
AD
