The Captain's Paradise

The Captain's Paradise is a 1953 British comedy film produced and directed by Anthony Kimmins, and starring Alec Guinness, Yvonne De Carlo and Celia Johnson. Guinness plays the captain of a passenger ship that travels regularly between Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco. De Carlo plays his Moroccan wife and Johnson plays his British wife. The film begins at just before the end of the story, which is then told in a series of flashbacks. In 1958, the story was made into a Broadway musical comedy, retitled Oh, Captain!. Plot In early 1950s North Africa, a man (Alec Guinness) is escorted through an angry crowd by a platoon of soldiers. They enter a fort, and it is clear he is to be executed. The commander (Peter Bull) orders the soldiers to line up. He gives them orders to aim and fire. As the shots ring out, the scene shifts to a ferry ship, The Golden Fleece. Passengers embark for the two-day journey from Morocco to Gibraltar. Among them is an elderly gentleman, Lawrence St. James (Miles Malleson), who has come to speak with his nephew, the ship's captain, Henry St. James, on an unspecified matter. He is shocked to learn from the captain's first mate, Carlos Ricco (Charles Goldner), that he is dead. He begs Ricco to explain what happened. He learns that Henry, the prosperous owner and skipper of the ship, ferried passengers regularly between Gibraltar and North Africa. In flashback, we witness Henry St. James keeping two separate relationships: (1) In Morroco, he lives with his lover, Nita (Yvonne De Carlo)a young, tempestuous woman, 23 years younger than himself. He takes her out every night to fashionable restaurants and night clubs, celebrating a wild lifestyle. (2) In Gibraltar, he shares his life with Maud (Celia Johnson)his devoted wife, 15 years his juniorliving a respectable, sober existence, and going to bed every night no later than ten. In Morroco, Henry presents Nita with lingerie and bikinis. But in Gibraltar, he buys Maud a vacuum cleaner. Both are delighted. On board his ship, he rejects all female company, choosing intellectual discussions with male passengers at his Captain's table. He has found a perfect existenceparadise. But it won't last.