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). "And once found, never to meet!" But can the captain keep these women from meeting each other? What do you think!
Guinness is front and center throughout the film, delivering a cerebral, understated profile in smugitude that begins with his eyes. Alternately heavy-lidded in repose or wide and blazing when upset, his eye reactions cue much of the laughter in this somewhat sedate comedy. 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. As an Ealing... well, almost an Ealing comedy, "Paradise" plays with stereotypes as a form of satire. That the captain thinks he has a great thing going is part of the humor. So is the fact he doesn't seem able to listen or process it when his women tell him otherwise. The tone set by director Anthony Kimmins is so merry it can be mistaken for approval, but this ignores the delicious resolution of the captain's two loves.
The script by Alec Coppel and Nicholas Phipps sets up the captain's fragile situation. Prim Maud craves a bikini but settles for a vacuum. For them, it's hot cocoa and "beddy-byes" at 10. With fiery Nita, it's champagne and dancing all night at a place that looks like Rick's All- American Café, Guinness with a rose in his teeth. Anyone can see this is not a sustainable situation, and nearly any man can't gainsay his trying anyway.
I think the film suffers from some minor flaws that show up more with repeat viewings. It does move slowly, taking up about thirty minutes to set up the premise everyone will know going in. There are a couple of bookend shots featuring Ricco explaining the situation to a stranger that offer just dead air. 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. But "Ladykillers" and "Coronets" had even higher body counts, which didn't stop them from being great. "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.
