Affairs of Cappy Ricks

A simple and basic comedy of manners.

Old Captain Ricks returns home to see it transformed into a home automation experiment and his daughter engaged to the avant-garde partner's son. He then decides to take the whole family on a long trip across the Pacific, on his ship, which works in the old fashioned way, to make them awaken to the old values of his time, forgotten by the perks of city life.

Despite the apparent conservatism of the script, neither Captain Ricks is as old fashioned as he seems, nor is the lesson irrational or ineffective.

However, it is a weak film, without humor, without plot, without flame. A simple, somewhat silly idea for a comedy, not funny at all.

This is the movie of it's era, truly. Great acting all around and a no-nonsense plot that keeps you engaged the entire time Cappy and everyone is on screen. He makes many references to shipboard things that I cannot comprehend, but I think I got the meat and potatoes on what he was talking about.

He really lays down the law to his stupid family when he returns, and that is a blessing as they are all slovenly and shiftless as the day is long.

Ralph Staub is a visionary, and truly deserves all the credit here, though Walter Brennan made the most of a stellar script, as expected. I hope we see more of this duo in the years to come!

Walter Brennan in one of his few starring roles while he was winning all those Best Supporting Actor awards, stars in this amusing comedy for Republic. Brennan is in the title role of Cappy Ricks an old sea dog who's built up a nice business of ship building, but who feels that progress is too much of a good thing.

In a way the Affairs Of Cappy Ricks is a humorous version of The Flight Of The Phoenix where Brennan is a nautical version of what James Stewart was in the air. Automation and instruments are fine, but unless you can sail by stars and compass and I do mean sail because steam and diesel power boats can run out of fuel you are no kind of sailor.

And that's a lesson his family seems to have forgotten as one daughter is getting married to a confirmed landlubber and another daughter has dumped longtime boyfriend Lyle Talbot for the son of a man whose business is about to merge and takeover Brennan's.

So Brennan arranges a little south sea voyage for the whole lot of them and has a preplanned shipwreck on a deserted island that would seem like home to the Gilligan's Island castaways. And it's as primitive as can be.

Brennan has no leading players to steal scenes from, so he's given a full head of steam by the director. His only competition is that of Georgia Caine who is the wife of William Davidson whom Brennan's business was merging with. Mary Brian is good as Brennan's feisty daughter whom he'd like to get back together with Talbot.

Definitely for fans for Walter Brennan.

I loved the VFA's professional re-release of this film and especially Gregg's commentary! It was funny and insightful! I had no idea that costume designers could have one name like Madonna!

5 bags of popcorn and 5 sodas.

Walter Brennan has a rare title role. He returns from his latest voyage to discover that Georgia Caine has bought 51% of his shipping company, installed buttons instead of sailors everywhere, and is about to marry Brennan's daughter, Mary Brian, to her son, Frank Melton, instead of the manly Lyle Talbot. So Brennan insists they all go for a cruise and strands them on a desert island.

It's all a by-the-numbers effort, little more than a decent time-waster, from a series of stories by Peter Kyne. Kyne was a prolific writer in several genres, and more than a hundred movies were made from his works. He died in 1957 at the age of 77.