The Captain Hates the Sea | |
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Directed by | Lewis Milestone |
Screenplay by | Wallace Smith Arnold Belgard |
Based on | The Captain Hates the Sea 1933 novel by Wallace Smith |
Produced by | Lewis Milestone |
Starring | Victor McLaglen Wynne Gibson Alison Skipworth John Gilbert Helen Vinson |
Cinematography | Joseph H. August |
Edited by | Gene Milford |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes [1] 85 minutes (Sony Pictures Television Print) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Captain Hates the Sea is a 1934 comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and released by Columbia Pictures. [2] [3] The film, which involves a Grand Hotel -style series of intertwining stories involving the passengers on a cruise ship, was the last feature film of silent film icon John Gilbert and the first Columbia feature to include The Three Stooges (Curly Howard, Moe Howard and Larry Fine) in the cast as the ship's orchestra. The film also stars Victor McLaglen, Arthur Treacher, Akim Tamiroff, Leon Errol and Walter Connolly. [4] [5]
Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the ship San Capador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit drinking and begin writing a book. Also on board are Steve's friend Schulte, a private detective hoping to nab criminal Danny Checkett with a fortune in stolen bonds. Steve begins drinking, all the while observing the various stories of other passengers on board, several of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be.
During production, the film went over budget due in large part to the alcohol-fueled partying by Gilbert, McLaglen, Errol, Catlett and Connolly. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia, became alarmed and sent a cable to Lewis Milestone that read: "Hurry up! The cost is staggering!" Milestone, in turn, sent a cable to Cohn that read: "So is the cast!" [6] [7]
The exterior footage of the San Capeador (filmed at San Pedro Harbor) would be recycled in the Three Stooges' short Dunked in the Deep . [8]
A DVD of The Captain Hates the Sea was released on August 2, 2011, by Sony. [5]
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total Stooges appeared over the act's run ; Moe Howard and Larry Fine were mainstays throughout the ensemble's nearly 50-year run, while the "third stooge" was played in turn by Shemp Howard, Curly Howard, Shemp Howard again, Joe Besser, and "Curly Joe" DeRita.
Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen was a British-American actor and boxer. His film career spanned from the early 1920s through the 1950s, initially as a leading man, though he was better known for his character acting. He was a well-known member of John Ford’s Stock Company, appearing in 12 of the director’s films, seven of which co-starred John Wayne.
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.
John Gilbert was an American actor, screenwriter and director. He rose to fame during the silent era and became a popular leading man known as "The Great Lover". His breakthrough came in 1925 with his starring roles in The Merry Widow and The Big Parade. At the height of his career, Gilbert rivaled Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw.
Arthur Veary Treacher was an English film and stage actor active from the 1920s to the 1960s, and known for playing English types, especially butler and manservant roles, such as the P.G. Wodehouse valet character Jeeves and the kind butlers opposite Shirley Temple in Curly Top (1935) and Heidi (1937). In the 1960s, he became well known on American television as an announcer/sidekick to talk show host Merv Griffin, and as the support character Constable Jones in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). He lent his name to the Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips chain of restaurants.
Moses Harry Horwitz, better known by his stage name Moe Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He is best known as the leader and straight man of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades. That group initially started out as Ted Healy and His Stooges, an act that toured the vaudeville circuit. Moe's distinctive hairstyle came about when he was a boy and cut off his curls with a pair of scissors, producing an irregular shape approximating a bowl cut.
Harry Cohn was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Jerome Lester Horwitz, better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He was a member of the comedy team The Three Stooges, which also featured his elder brothers Moe and Shemp Howard, as well as actor Larry Fine. In early shorts, he was billed as Curley. Curly Howard was generally considered the most popular and recognizable of the Stooges.
Walter Leland Catlett was an American actor and comedian. He made a career of playing excitable, meddlesome, temperamental, and officious blowhards.
Leon Errol was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in films.
China Seas is a 1935 American adventure film starring Clark Gable as a brave sea captain, Jean Harlow as his brassy paramour, and Wallace Beery as a suspect character. The oceangoing epic also features Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, Akim Tamiroff, and Hattie McDaniel, while humorist Robert Benchley portrays a character reeling drunk from one end of the film to the other.
Hollywood Party, also known under its working title of The Hollywood Revue of 1933 and Star Spangled Banquet, is a 1934 American pre-Code musical film starring Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Jimmy Durante, Lupe Vélez and Mickey Mouse. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Each sequence featured a different star with a separate scriptwriter and director assigned.
The Buccaneer is a 1938 American adventure film made by Paramount Pictures starring Fredric March and based on Jean Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The picture was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Harold Lamb, Edwin Justus Mayer and C. Gardner Sullivan adapted by Jeanie MacPherson from the 1930 novel Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon. The music score was by George Antheil and the cinematography by Victor Milner.
Geneva Doris Mitchell was an American actress. After beginning her entertainment career as a chorus girl at the age of twelve, she became more well known for her roles in several Hollywood films.
Go into Your Dance is a 1935 American musical drama film starring Al Jolson, Ruby Keeler, and Glenda Farrell. The film was directed by Archie Mayo, and is based on the novel of the same name by Bradford Ropes. It was released by Warner Bros. on April 20, 1935. An irresponsible Broadway star gets mixed up with gambling and gangsters.
They Who Dare is a 1954 British Second World War war film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Dirk Bogarde, Denholm Elliott and Akim Tamiroff. It was released by British Lion Films and in the United States by Allied Artists. The story is based on Operation Anglo that took place during World War II in the Dodecanese islands where special forces attempted to disrupt the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica from threatening Allied forces in Egypt. The title of the film is a reference to the motto of the Special Air Service: "Who Dares Wins".
Start Cheering is a 1938 American musical film directed by Albert S. Rogell and starring Jimmy Durante, Charles Starrett, Joan Perry, and Walter Connolly. It is best remembered today for guest appearances throughout the film by The Three Stooges, who were Columbia Pictures' short subject headliners at the time, as campus firemen. The film's choreography was by Danny Dare.
Tamara Shayne, also known as Tamara Nikoulina, was a Russian-born actress and long-time resident in the United States.
The Great Hotel Murder is a 1935 American mystery film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Edmund Lowe, Victor McLaglen, Rosemary Ames and Mary Carlisle. It is based on Recipe for Murder a 1934 story by Vincent Starrett.
Whom the Gods Destroy is a 1934 American drama film directed by Walter Lang and starring Walter Connolly.