From the 1930s: Captains Courageous

1937 Drama

From MGM

Directed by Victor Fleming

Starring

Freddie Bartholomew

Spencer Tracy

Lionel Barrymore

Melvyn Douglas

Mickey Rooney

Charley Grapewin

John Carradine

Sam McDaniel

Spencer Tracy won the first of his back-to-back Oscars for this coming-of-age adventure film and after production wrapped, the actor was relieved.  Well, I got away with it.  Wanna know why?  Because of Freddie, because of that kid's performance, because he sold it 98%.  The kid had to believe in Manuel (Tracy's character) or Manuel wasn't worth a quarter.  The way he would look at me, believe every word I said, made me believe in it myself.  I've never said this before and I'll never say it again.  Freddie Bartholomew's acting is so fine and so simple and so true that it's way over people's heads.  It'll only be by thinking back two or three years from now that they'll realize how great it was.

I hadn't seen this movie until a couple of years ago and I was blown away.  There were many things to recommend it but nothing more so than young Freddie's acting.  So after watching it I hauled myself over here to my desk and started pounding out a rapturous posting. When I was perhaps three paragraphs from the end, the power went out and (I guess I had forgotten to save it) I lost it all.  I was so frustrated I couldn't write about it again.  Until now.

Based on Rudyard Kipling's 1897 novel, the story centers around Harvey Cheyne (Bartholomew), the 10-year spoiled brat son of a business tycoon (Douglas).  Harvey's mother has just passed away and while father and son love one another, the father spends little time with his son because of the family business.  At his private boarding school Harvey is willful, obnoxious and out for only himself.  After he pulls one prank too many, he is suspended.  His father decides to take him on a business trip by ship.

While on an upper deck of a steamship, Harvey, hiding from other children, falls into the sea near the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. He is rescued by Manuel (Tracy), a Portuguese-American fisherman in his dory, and taken aboard the fishing schooner, We're Here, from Gloucester, Massachusetts. 

Within minutes of being onboard, just about everyone wants to throw Harvey back in the water.  He is petulant, unpleasant and bossy... insisting that they give up their fishing and take him back to New York.  He throws a real hissy-fit when he's told that they will be out on the water for three months and after that time they will take him back.  And if that's not enough Harvey is told that he will have to earn his keep by working.  He adamantly refuses and after much acting out, Captain Disko (Barrymore) cuffs him on the side of his head, knocking him on his little privileged ass.

Disko's son Dan (Rooney) is told to show Harvey the ropes but Harvey dismisses it all.  The captain tells Manuel that he is in charge of the brat and he is to turn him into a crew member.  Harvey again refuses to work and Manuel gives instructions that he is not to be fed until he does as he is told.

One cannot help but be bewitched by the scenes involving these two.  Manuel is wiser than he lets on and he brings Harvey along without the lad realizing what's going on.  Even audiences are likely to not notice the change until in one section the kid is actually nice and one might wonder when did that happen?  The insults that each throws at the other in the first half provides some of the film's best laughs and as their relationship grows into love, grab the Kleenex.  Most would expect a 10-year old to be mollycoddled but not on the We're Here.

Tracy and Batholomew

After Harvey and Manuel realize their growing affection for one another, they pair up and challenge other fishing partners to go out in their individual dories and see who can catch the most fish with a reward as an incentive.  Manuel and Harvey are leading when it's discovered that one of Harvey's pranks has caused a crewman, Long Jack (Carradine), to get caught up in his own fishing lines and fall into the water.  Later, back on deck, Jack realizes the kid is responsible and goes after Harvey in front of the crew.   Manuel grabs Jack (in full closeup, showing Manuel's fury)... you touch that kid, I tear you apart.  The love grows and so does the boy.

Adventure on the high seas kicks into gear for a film noted for its exciting sailing footage.  The We're Here and another schooner engage in a race showing two magnificent ships under full sail, close hauled, straining into the wind, roaring along the Grand Banks and it is a thing of awe-inspiring beauty and power.  I had to check my open-mouthed excitement for fear I'd drown.

And then someone does.  Tragedy at the end of the race turns the film into a tear-jerker.  Manuel climbs to the top of the mast to furl the sail but the mast cracks, hurling him into the icy waters and tangling him in the rigging and leaving him with a fatal wound.  Harvey, sobbing and distraught, crawls along downed rigging into the sea and tries to untangle Manuel.  In Portuguese Manuel tells a crew member that his bottom half is gone and to keep it from the boy.  Captain Disko, also in the water, strikes blow after blow with his ax at the rigging which then breaks apart taking Manuel with it to the bottom of the sea.

Tracy, Bartholomew, Barrymore

Harvey is reunited with his father who quickly assesses his son's new maturity.  The boy lights candles at a church and the father witnesses his son sobbing inconsolably.  The captain assures Harvey there is room in his heart for both his father and Manuel.  Harvey and his father attend a memorial in Gloucester where they toss wreaths and bouquets on the outgoing tide in tribute to those lost at sea during the fishing season.  

A touching final scene shows Manuel's dory being towed behind the father's car as he and his beloved son laugh over Harvey telling of his adventure.  Superimposed over the screen is a smiling Manuel.

I have never seen a Freddie Bartholomew movie other than Captains Courageous.  In a way I very much like that I only see him as Harvey and no one else.  He made just 22 movies.  Some are quite famous such as Little Lord Fauntleroy, Kidnapped and Swiss Family Robinson.  Born in England in 1924, MGM took note of him and put him under contract where he became one of the most popular and talented child stars of all time.  He was also the second highest paid, behind Shirley Temple.  He lived in the U.S. the rest of his life.

He was lauded for the emotional range of his acting skills, very rare for a child actor.  His faultless performance certainly stands tall alongside acting stalwarts and Oscar winners Tracy, Douglas and Barrymore.  His open-faced, personable presence along with perfect diction and angelic looks made him a box-office favorite.

It took a year to make Captains Courageous and it's been said all those male stars had a good cry when it was over.  They had become family and everyone loved Freddie.  He would always regard the film as his favorite.

Rooney and Bartholomew

Tracy was doubtful about accepting the assignment, the same as he was with all his great roles.  Here the doubts were multiplied.  He complained that it was the boy's picture, his part was too small (it was built up considerably from the novel), he had to sing, had to learn to (semi) play the hurdy gurdy, had to have his hair curled every day.  And not only was he not top-billed but was billed under a 12-year old kid.  In these pre-Hepburn days, it took his wife to convince him to take the part.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is one of his finest roles although, despite his Oscar win, he never thought so.  While he has long been regarded as one of America's very best actors, his specialty in my mind was being cantankerous and thrillingly so.  For Captains Courageous, that's non-existent and he is light, happy and funny and often singing.  Despite his not even attempting a Portuguese accent, it's a glorious performance.   

One of his inducements to take the role was because he wanted to work with director Victor Fleming.  They knew one another personally.  Both were charter members of the boys' club and were tough, hard-drinking characters.  After this film they would work together again in Test Pilot (1938), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942) and A Guy Named Joe (1943).  Of course, you may have heard of not one but two little films Fleming made in 1939... The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind.

It would have been easy for Douglas to turn in a standard performance as a frequently missing father, especially since he's seen only at the beginning and the end of the story and away from the main action, but the actor infuses the part with layers of imaginative talent.

Barrymore turns in his expected and very enjoyable grouchy/lovable performance.  His scenes with Freddie sparkle.  This is his final standing role before a recurring hip injury and severe arthritis put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  He would again play a ship's captain in a boy's coming-of-age story in 1949's Down to the Sea in Ships.

Two happy actors

Rooney's part is neither large nor showy and it might be noted that he also costarred with Tracy in the actor's next Oscar-winning performance, Boys Town.  Carradine has a good role as Long Jack and it's a nice opportunity to see the old thespian looking so young.
Some notable changes came when the novel became a film.  Kipling had Harvey at the age of 19, both of his parents are alive and the part of Manuel was a small one.  Screenwriters John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly and Dale Van Every's changes to the novel are all better for the film.  It adds a poignancy to the story that Harvey is 10 years old and I cannot imagine Manuel not being a major character.  How different this film would have been.

In addition to Tracy's Oscar win, nominations also went to the screenplay, editing and the film itself.  I think Freddie was due an honorary Oscar for his vivid performance.

Much of the movie was made in a large tank on the MGM lot but there was also location shooting in Gloucester; Port aux Basques, Newfoundland; Shelburne, Nova Scotia; and in the Florida keys.  The exciting storm sequences were filmed in Mazatlan, Mexico. 

If you haven't seen the film, you really must.  It's a gem.

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