Send A Snob To Sea: Reviewing Warner Archive’s ‘Captains Courageous’

Warner Archive provided me with a free copy of the Blu-Ray I reviewed in this article. The opinions I share are my own.

From spoiled brat to thoughtful sailor, the journey Harvey (Freddie Bartholomew) goes on in Victor Fleming‘s Captains Courageous is one for the books. Based on a Rudyard Kipling novel, it’s a film that truly takes a complete left turn. Harvey before falling off the Queen Anne and after is a changed child but that change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s fun to imagine someone turning on this movie, seeing Harvey at peak snob mode at his elite boarding school where he’s learning how to capitalize on his family name, turning the movie off because who wants to watch privileged rich people right now, and having no clue that Harvey’s about to wind up stuck on a fishing boat for three months when he falls off the side of his dad’s ocean liner.

In the same way Harvey is caught off guard by his change in circumstances, Captains Courageous becomes a completely different movie. This isn’t one of those boat movies that avoids spending time on the water or where the boat is clearly not moving or getting rocked by waves. This is serious, in the middle of nowhere, can’t afford to sail back early fishing where little Harvey is out of his depth and where the dangers of being on a boat are never far from mind. Whether it’s the crazy angles the boat sails at sometimes, where it’s a wonder it doesn’t tip over, or the near misses where Harvey almost gets hit and knocked over (again), these are all treated like casual occurrences.

This movie sports an absolutely phenomenal cast. From Lionel Barrymore as the captain to Mickey Rooney in a role that could’ve easily been expanded and shows how unreliant he was on the cutesy marks of being a child musical star — he could genuinely act. The same goes for Bartholomew, who’s asked to shoulder an extremely difficult character arc, where he has to be unlikable for a lot of it for the evolution to be believable and it’s played with complete honesty. That his scene partner for much of the movie is an at the height of his powers Spencer Tracy doesn’t hurt. Tracy playing a Portuguese sailor named Manuel wouldn’t have been cast that way today but, emotionally, there isn’t a false note to his performance (and this is a movie that will pull at the heartstrings even after you know what’s coming). Harvey’s sudden arrival on the ship stirs up a lot of superstitions from the crew. The question is whether he’ll shape up or prove their worst fears right.

Another cast member who could be overlooked is Melvyn Douglas as Harvey’s tycoon dad, who adds a lot of depth to an absentee father role who only appears at the beginning and end of the movie. Samuel McDaniel (brother of Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel) is also fantastic as the cook, Doc.

Warner Archive’s Blu-ray comes with a weird live action short starring Robert Benchley, a radio promo ad for Captains Courageous, and a cartoon called “Wayward Pups” about two adorable Pokey little puppy looking dogs and their jaguar-looking housecat of an antagonist. Maybe not the best bonus feature showing for Warner Archive, but this is an adventure film adults and kids can be equally entranced by.

Captains Courageous is on sale now from Warner Archive and to purchase from Movie Zyng.