Tugboat Annie Sails Again

If Wallace Beery and the late Marie Dressler weren't so firmly etched in people's minds as a team then possibly Marjorie Rambeau and Alan Hale might have gotten a whole series of films. At least according to the Citadel Film series book on the Films Of Ronald Reagan that's what Jack Warner was hoping for. However looking at it today Tugboat Annie can certainly stand on its own merits.

Beery and Dressler were a married couple but Rambeau is a widow in this film taking over her husband's salvage tug business with her crew Chill Wills, Paul Hurst, and Victor Killian. She also has a new young sailor in tow, Ronald Reagan who's learning the ropes. And she has a rivalry going with Captain Bullwinkle played by Alan Hale which is friendly and sometimes not so friendly.

Like when they are bidding for a contract to haul equipment for Clarence Kolb's dry dock to be built in Skagway shipping from Seattle. Things go bad for Annie on that trip, but she comes out on top and it really costs Hale big time.

Husband and wife Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman are the romantic interest. Jane is also Kolb's daughter. Tugboat Annie Rides Again also gives the historically minded a chance to see Neil 'Moon' Reagan, modest and self effacing brother of the 40th president. He was an announcer like his brother and had a most minor acting career. He plays here a famous Lowell Thomas type radio announcer.

Tugboat Annie Rides Again is a pleasant enough lightweight film to be enjoyed and not taken all that seriously. It sure looked like the cast was having a good time.

Marjorie Rambeau, an excellent character actress twice nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, has the unenviable task of having to attempt to fill the shoes of the legendary Marie Dressler in one of her most famous and popular roles in this quasi-sequel to TUGBOAT ANNIE. Ms. Rambeau has her work cut out for her saddled with an uneven script, a modest B production, and a aging makeup job that at best makes her look like a worn Ethel Barrymore and at worst (most of the picture) like a slightly feminine Lon Chaney. Add it a heavy, unnecessary Irish accent for the character and dialogue with episodes loaded with lame malapropisms and it's a tribute to Ms. Rambeau's talent that this boat manages to float at all.

Tugboat Annie and rival tugboat captain Alan Hale (playing a character named Bullwinkle, which I first thought was merely a slam of a moniker given him by Annie) clash as they vie for jobs at sea. Hale is not above dirty tricks to try to come out on top. Annie and her small crew (which include Chill Wills and Victor Kilian in early roles) however are seldom bested but circumstances come about where Annie's job is in jeopardy and one rich customer wants her replaced by a man. Meanwhile the millionaire's daughter (played by a gorgeous young blonde Jane Wyman) has a crush on one of Annie's young assistants (Ronald Reagan) and stowaway on one rough trip to Alaska. The Wyman-Reagan semi-romance is so prominent in the early scenes it's a shock that their storyline is pretty much dropped in the last third of the film.

The story loses what interest it has somewhere midway in the picture but recovers nicely toward the end with one genuinely hilarious scene at a beauty salon as the now unemployed Annie attempts to relax and be a conventional female but can't help but talk old shop talk about tugboats, unbeknownst to the society woman who sits near her who is horrified at Annie's tale of a "tramp" (boat) ruined by a worthless man, some surprisingly strong double entendres in Annie's story for a studio film of the period.

Thank you for broadcast this movie last night! With all the different styles and types of movie now a days, I fine it a pleasure to still be able to watch classic movies like this.

I know I may sound old even though I am in my middle 50's, but how can you beat a movie like this.

This movie was made before airplanes were important and even the BROOM of cruise-lines hitting the seas. I truly learned a lot in this movie about the forgotten tug industry which is as important today as it was then.

Especially the part of the movie where Annie saved the freighter from being aground. I truly understood her theory of the lifting the ship from the sand bank.

Now a days you are worried about the grade given to a movie and it's contents, this was entertaining and funny.

WOW to see our past president (Ronald) and Father Knows Best (Jane) was interesting and special.

Once again, thank you TCM for broadcasting this movie last night. Please broadcast the other Tugboat Annie movies! ess

An entertaining if inconsequential picture, worth seeing for a memorable performance by one of the unappreciated greats, Marjorie Rambeau. This was not the type of role for which she was noted previously. In addition, she was playing a character originated on screen by the wonderful Marie Dressler. Like the latter, but in her own distinctive way, Marjorie Rambeau convincingly evokes contrasting character traits: toughness and sentimentality, spunk and empathy, sassiness and gentleness.

Made the same year as "Primrose Path," and reminiscent of "Min and Bill," it includes, as those pictures do, a first-rate performance by an absolutely first-rate actress.