Tugboat Annie

The first thing I want to say is that "Tugboat Annie" is not just a comedy. I wouldn't even say it's primarily a comedy. It is a drama first and a comedy second.

Annie Brennan (Marie Dressler) owned and operated a tugboat with her shiftless drunkard of a husband, Terry (Wallace Beery). The two had a son named Alec who grew up to be the youngest captain of an ocean liner and they couldn't have been more proud. Annie was a good mother and Alec (Robery Young) was an excellent son. Even after he'd made something of himself he didn't high hat his parents. Though they were still nothing more than unrefined tugboat operators Alec showed them off with pride.

If Annie had one flaw it was her loyalty to Terry. His drinking got them into one problem after another. It even put Annie on the rocks with her own son. She was hopelessly torn between her loyalty to both men when Alec told his mother she'd have to make a choice: leave Terry and live in a nice apartment inland or stay with Terry on the Narcissus (the name of their tugboat).

"Tugboat Annie" was touching, saddening, maddening, and even suspenseful. Yes, it was funny at times, but I'm glad it didn't try to make it as a straight comedy. Dressler and Beery make an incomparable combo. They also starred together in "Min and Bill" (1930) which was a good movie as well. Also of note in "Tugboat Annie" was Maureen O'Sullivan ("Skyscraper Souls" and "Payment Deferred") who played Alec's fiance, and Paul Hurst.

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The only film adaption ever done of the Saturday Evening Post "Tugboat Annie" stories. interesting depictions of the eating area, and engine room with its old triple expansion engine. the "Narcissus", was played by the real tugboat "Arthur Foss" which is preserved as a maritime museum after 101 years of work.

I thought Marie Dressler was great and died too soon, and that's the main reason for my rating on "Tugboat Annie". She carries the picture and was better than she was in "Min and Bill", the one she won an AA for three years before. The narrative here is more a series of vignettes on the life of a tugboat skipper, strung together and concerning the same group of people. The plot seems disjointed and each episode is an end in itself.

What is really annoying is the presence, or rather the character played by Wallace Beery. He was adept at playing a big slob but he overdoes it in 'Tugboat Annie", so much so that you wish he would get washed overboard or that she would leave him ashore, preferably on foreign soil. There is no way anyone could put up with incompetence and irresponsibility of this kind. He plays an unabashed drunk who nearly ruins her financially, and the ending barely justifies his behavior to that point.

Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan are along for appearances but with little to do. But it is a chance to see one of the best comediennes ever to grace the Silver Screen and Hollywood was poorer for it when she passed on.

Tugboat captain Marie Dressler (as Annie) manages to rear a son and run the family business, with only spotty help from alcoholic husband Wallace Beery (as Terry Brennan). "Tugboat Annie" sailed to the top of box office lists, helmed by the tremendous appeal of Ms. Dressler. This is one of her finest and most fondly remembered performances. Dressler would be good anyway, but gets terrific help from Mr. Berry. He and Dressler possess the chemistry and craft to pull off the slightly weak and episodic story.

The weakness is in the bland relationship essayed by Robert Young (as Alexander "Alec" Brennan) and pretty Maureen O'Sullivan (as Patricia "Pat" Severn). Frankie Darro (as young Alec) is fine, studying algebra and history with Dressler in the early scenes, but you wonder how Dressler plus Berry (or anyone) could have netted Mr. Young. The relationship between Dressler and Berry is the story's strength, with the co-stars putting comic pathos in the classic "love triangle" involving wife, husband and alcohol.

******* Tugboat Annie (8/4/33) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan

Tugboat Annie reunited Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler for a second time after the big hit they made with Min And Bill. Although that first film was more dramatic and Dressler got her Best Actress Award for Min And Bill, Tugboat Annie still has a lot of laughs and heart in it as Marie Dressler cares for her husband, child, and business which is running a salvage tug out of Puget Sound.

Marie of course is in the title role and she skippers the USS Narcissus and works in a man's world. She lives on the tug with her husband and child Frankie Darro who grows up to be Robert Young. Beery is her shiftless drunken husband, but she's determined to raise their son to make something of himself.

Flashing forward several years, Robert Young is now captain of an ocean liner and working for a former rival of Dressler's, Tammany Young who has worked his way up from the salvage business. Young is engaged to Tammany's daughter Maureen O'Sullivan, but he's not that crazy of his parents stepping into society, Marie doesn't fit and she knows it, and Beery is just Beery.

Who periodically goes off on a toot and always lets his family down. However in the end during a crisis on the Narcissus, Beery does come through. It's why she loves and puts up with him.

MGM put a little money into Tugboat Annie doing a whole lot of location shooting in Puget Sound. I don't know whether the cast got up there or their footage was done on the sound stage, but it certainly was blended in nicely with background shots.

In real life Beery and Dressler hardly got along, then again Wallace Beery got along with very few people in the world. Still their on screen chemistry is not to be denied in Tugboat Annie which holds up every bit as good for today.