The Captain's Paradise

1953 film by Anthony Kimmins

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!.

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 Morocco, 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 Morocco, 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. All it takes is one careless mistake on the part of Henry. This leads to Ricco, up until then believing Nita to be the captain's wife, discovering that the true Mrs. St. James lives in Gibraltar. Ricco assists St. James in maintaining the deception when Maud flies to Morocco and by chance meets Nita. Henry arranges to have Maud arrested before she and Nita realise they are married to the same man. He convinces Maud that Morocco is a dangerous place and that she should never return there. The years pass. Maud has twins. She is thrilled with her two boys, but when they are sent to school in England, Maud is no longer enamoured with her marriage. She wants to dance and drink gin. On the other hand, Nita wants to stay home and cook for her man. Henry is dismayed and makes every effort to keep everything just the way it was. His attempts to maintain the status quo result in both women taking lovers. When Henry discovers Nita's infidelity, he leaves the flat as she continues the argument with her lover, Absalom. Nita shoots and kills her lover. In order to protect Nita, Henry claims he was the killer. Return to the execution. Upon being given the order to aim and fire, the soldiers swing their rifles away from Henry and shoot their commanding officer. Henry hands them money and walks away.

The film was based on an original story by Alec Coppel. Nicholas Phipps wrote the script. The original title was Paradise. In 1951, it was announced that Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer would star. The following year press reports said Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were going to star, with Olivier to direct and Alex Korda to possibly produce. Olivier and Leigh became unavailable. According to Yvonne De Carlo, when she was offered her role by director Anthony Kimmins, she agreed to do it if Alec Guinness played the lead. Kimmins said it was unlikely to get Guinness and that they would probably go for Ray Milland or Michael Wilding; De Carlo urged they try Guinness anyway and the actor accepted. Alec Guinness had a contract with Alex Korda to make one film a year his casting was announced in Variety in October 1952. Celia Johnson signed to play the other lead. Kimmins said: "We're trying to show man's triple side there's the domestic wife – pipe and slippers side; then the jungle side – the girl in port sort of thing. Then there's the conversational, man to man side And naturally we stay tongue in cheek throughout so we don't expect to wreck any homes." Filming finished in March 1953. Yvonne De Carlo said she enjoyed the film because she "got the chance to act". She found working with Guinness "an exhilarating experience".

The film was a hit at the British box office.

In the Winter 2022/3 edition of The UK's Media Education Journal Colin McArthur in an essay 'Unacknowledged Parable of (de)Colonialisation' he explores the film in terms of its 'serious account of the inevitability of decolonialisation.

Included as part of the Alec Guinness Collection,The Captain's Paradise was released on DVD in September 2002.