film
ONE WIFE TOO MANY
‘A sailor with a girl in every port’ is an old expression much bandied about in bygone days by young men with visions of romantic life at sea. In the movie The Captain’s Paradise, the fantasy is switched to a captain with a wife in every port. Only two wives mind you, but that is still one more than allowed under British Common Law.
BY REG REYNOLDS
T
he Captain’s Paradise, released in 1953, starred Alec Guinness, Celia Johnson and Yvonne de Carlo. The black and white movie tells of the ‘paradise-like life’ of Captain Henry St. James (Guinness) owner and skipper of the passenger ferry The Golden Fleece that plies the waters between Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco. Captain St. James enjoys the advantage of having a staid, proper English wife, Maude (Johnson) in Gibraltar and a wild, nightlife loving second wife Nita (de Carlo) in Spanish Morocco. I saw the film in the cinema when I was a youngster and watched it again recently via the internet. This fine British comedy is not full of belly laughs like a Carry On film or the slapstick of Laurel and Hardy but has plenty of subtle humour and interesting plot twists and turns. Many viewers will find the assumption of a man enjoying his egotistical self at the expense of two unsuspecting women offensive, but the writer Alec Coppel makes him pay for his devious behaviour. The story itself 60
He makes him pay for his devious behaviour. is good enough that Coppel was nominated for an Oscar, losing out to Dalton Trumbo and Roman Holiday. Gibraltarians of all ages will enjoy seeing various shots of the Rock and its docks. There are a few street scenes and one shot of a Saccone and Speed lorry, but unfortunately virtually nothing of the town. The flavour of Gibraltar life is enhanced with a considerable amount of Spanish dialogue. In the film the Moroccan town is called Kalik but looks to be Tangier, although one reviewer wrote that it was Ceuta. The film opens with Captain St. James facing a firing squad. It develops slowly but the pace soon quickens and is quite entertaining until the surprise
ending. Shortly after the opening scene, Lawrence St. James, played by Miles Malleson, arrives in Gibraltar hoping to visit with his nephew Henry only to find that he has disappeared. Lawrence meets with Carlos Ricco (Charles Goldner) the new captain of The Golden Fleece, who tells him of the rise and fall of Henry’s dual life in ‘paradise’. From there the film is a series of flashbacks with Ricco providing the narrative. The Captain’s Paradise is a classic film of its era and was one of Yvonne de Carlo’s favourites. De Carlo, who was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton in Vancouver, Canada, had a tough early life. Her father abandoned the home when Yvonne was only three. Her mother worked as a waitress in order to survive and pay for Yvonne to take dance lessons. They moved to Hollywood where 15-year-old Yvonne performed as a dancer and an extra in films. Her breakthrough came in 1945 when she was signed by Universal Pictures to play Salome in the film Salome, Where She Danced. De Carlo had Sicilian ancestry GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE JULY 2020
