Affairs of Cappy Ricks

Walter Brennan has a rare title role. He returns from his latest voyage to discover that Georgia Caine has bought 51% of his shipping company, installed buttons instead of sailors everywhere, and is about to marry Brennan's daughter, Mary Brian, to her son, Frank Melton, instead of the manly Lyle Talbot. So Brennan insists they all go for a cruise and strands them on a desert island.

It's all a by-the-numbers effort, little more than a decent time-waster, from a series of stories by Peter Kyne. Kyne was a prolific writer in several genres, and more than a hundred movies were made from his works. He died in 1957 at the age of 77.

I loved the VFA's professional re-release of this film and especially Gregg's commentary! It was funny and insightful! I had no idea that costume designers could have one name like Madonna!

5 bags of popcorn and 5 sodas.

Cranky seafaring Walter Brennan (as "Cappy" Ricks) returns from a voyage to find his San Francisco household has become "slovenly and shiftless." He doesn't approve of pretty daughter Mary O'Brian (as Frankie) being engaged to "lily-livered" Frank Shields (as Waldo), the son of a rival. Betting pal Lyle Talbot (as Bill Peck) he can whip everyone into shape, Mr. Brennan takes them on a cruise. He wants to fake a marooning, and "shake off civilization for awhile." But the plan threatens to backfire when they become stranded for real. Brennan isn't his usually lovable old salt, in this plot and situation retread. Trying to boss Brennan around, Georgia Caine (as Amanda Peasely) has some good moments.

**** Affairs of Cappy Ricks (5/24/37) Ralph Staub ~ Walter Brennan, Mary Brian, Georgia Caine, Lyle Talbot

A simple and basic comedy of manners.

Old Captain Ricks returns home to see it transformed into a home automation experiment and his daughter engaged to the avant-garde partner's son. He then decides to take the whole family on a long trip across the Pacific, on his ship, which works in the old fashioned way, to make them awaken to the old values of his time, forgotten by the perks of city life.

Despite the apparent conservatism of the script, neither Captain Ricks is as old fashioned as he seems, nor is the lesson irrational or ineffective.

However, it is a weak film, without humor, without plot, without flame. A simple, somewhat silly idea for a comedy, not funny at all.

While not having heard of Cappy Ricks before this, I'm guessing after looking on ebay that he was a fairly well-known book character in the early 20th. Brennan goes full steam as the curmudgeonly "old salt shaker" who stubbornly resists the encroachment of technology and is horrified on returning home and finding his daughter's future mother-in-law running his house and business and poised to merge his company with rival Bottomley, a purveyor of all things automated! Cappy launches a counter plot to set things straight, giving the story the bulk of its humorous situations. The highlight is the segment aboard the ELECTRA, Bottomley's almost completely automated yacht, particularly the scene with the push-button spice dispensers. The silly plot is served well by nice performances by Brennan, Georgia Caine, Frank Shields, and perky, attractive Mary Brian as Frankie. And the film itself foreshadows The Jetsons and Gilligan's Island 25 years before those shows made us roar with laughter (?)

5 1/2 Stars, check it out.