The Captain Hates the Sea

Walter Connolly applies his curmudgeon-with-a-heart screen persona to the character of a ship's captain whose hatred of the sea stems in part from the bad behavior of most of the passengers he encounters. After establishing this fact, we witness the trajectory of a huge number of characters during the course of a voyage from New York Harbor to an unnamed Latin American destination and back again. The cast list alone tells you almost all you would need to know: Besides Connolly there is Leon Errol, John Gilbert and Walter Catlett as a trio of mutually enabling tipplers, bossy harridan Alison Skipworth and sourpuss Charles Gillingwater, Wynne Gibson and Helen Vinson as two very different kinds of requisite pretty young things, Victor McLaglen as a private detective, a very mannered Arthur Treacher as an English major, and the little- known darkly handsome Fred Keating as a rather wimpy crook who resembles various other, better known performers like George Raft or even Russ Columbo, but then you find out he is actually Fred Keating. Added to the mix are Donald Meek as a solitary traveler whose long beard becomes the peculiar obsession of the captain, Akim Tamiroff as a Latin-American revolutionary and even the Three Stooges, playing it straight for a change, as the musicians of ship's dance band! (One of the numbers they play is identical to a number from "Horses' Collars," one of their Columbia short subjects released the following year.)

Sprinkled throughout are some marvelous bits of dialogue, including a series of witty remarks made by Gilbert who keeps rationalizing why he needs to take another drink. For example (and I paraphrase), "This is no time to be drinking…and no time to stop either." Some of the camera setups are also imaginative. When Gilbert, standing at a bar, is punched to the floor by John Wray, we next see him at ground level through a small door under the bar. When characters stop to chat in a ship's corridor, we hear the echo of their voices as we would if we overheard their conversation in that kind of space. When a woman jumps overboard we see her fall from multiple points of view, including vertically through the frame to the shock of people one deck below her leap.

The main thread of the plot, as in Grand Hotel, has to do with people needing money and what they will do to get it, including breaking the law. Subsidiary plots touch on various human foibles and all are touched with humor at one point or another.

If I didn't know better I would bet that Frank Capra or his oft-used screenwriter Robert Riskin had a hand in this effort because the casual yet detailed approach reminds me of their work.

A rather innocuous comedy The Captain Hates The Sea marked the farewell performance for silent screen star John Gilbert. After failing to make a comeback with his greatest co-star Greta Garbo in Queen Christina, Gilbert was given his walking papers by MGM. He was fourth billed in this film whose star was Victor McLaglen.

Given the incredibly good cast of familiar character players The Captain Hates The Sea should have been a lot better than it was. But it's hampered by a confusing script.

The main plot line involves former cop now turned private detective Victor McLaglen after some stolen bonds and he believes that Fred Keating and Helen Vinson have them. If one is used to seeing McLaglen as some of the oafish characters he played in later John Ford films, you'll be in for a surprise. He's by no means a dummy in The Captain Hates The Sea, though he does think a bit with his male member when it comes to Vinson.

John Gilbert who by this time had descended into alcoholism in real life is cast as a dissolute playboy looking to take the cure on the sea voyage. It was a part hitting too close to home, but that may have been the reason he was so good in it.

Another story line involves married couple John Wray and Wynne Gibson. She was a woman of easy virtue whose self righteous husband never lets her forget it.

Such familiar people as Walter Catlett, Donald Meek, Alison Skipworth and even the Three Stooges get their moments in the film. Presiding over all of this is Captain Walter Connolly who is constantly berating steward Leon Errol. Leon Errol who was born in Australia in the only time I ever heard him on film actually uses an accent from the land of his birth. Which makes me wonder if that was his natural speech or did he lose it in his years on stage and screen on both sides of the pond and only recall it for this film.

With such a colorful cast of familiar players The Captain Hates The Sea should be viewed. You'll probably like it as I did, but can see definite room for improvement.

This is a poorly paced and scripted little drama, that might have inspired the creators of "The Love Boat". It's all about the passengers and the crew aboard a cruise ship, and their various misadventures and intrigues.

It is the cast that redeems this picture from being a forgettable piece of mediocrity. All put in good performances - although I wasn't sure what The Three Stooges were doing in the film!! Alison Skipworth is especially memorable as a rather flirtatious rich widow.

But the film is made unforgettable by a magnificent performance from the great silent star John Gilbert, in his final film. Having fallen from super-stardom with the coming of sound, he had descended into alcoholism, and would die just two years after this film was completed. Ironically he portrays an alcoholic trying to reform - and he plays it with such dignity, grace, charm and wit, that he makes us realise today what a great screen actor we lost in John Gilbert. A sad final role perhaps, but he at last proved to the world that he could have been a fine talkie actor.

A sort of B version of Grand Hotel but on a cruise ship, The Captain Hates the Sea is fascinating for a couple of terrific performances among the wreckage of this film that seems badly directed because of the confusing plot.

A disparate group of people take a cruise and get involved in the petty squabbles of the crew as well as each other's messy lives. There's something about bonds and bad reputations and undercover cops but none of it makes much sense.

However, John Gilbert, in his final film, is magnificent as the drunk. His voice has never been better and how ironic that this great star, whose career was supposedly ruined by his lousy speaking voice, turns in yet another terrific performance in a talkie. For anyone who has seen Gilbert in this film or Downstairs, Queen Christina, or The Phantom of Paris, you know that Gilbert had no voice problems.

Here is suave and cool and funny in a William Powell sort of way, and he's just mesmerizing to watch. Also very good are Alison Skipworth as the bossy hostess, Helen Vinson as the bonds thief, Walter Connolly as the captain, Walter Catlett as the bartender, Donald Meek as the bearded passenger, Wynne Gibson as the woman with the past, Leon Errol as the ship's mate, Akim Tamriroff as the troubled man, and the Three Stooges as the ship's musicians.

Victor McLaglen and Fred Keating are also after the bonds while John Wray is defending his wife's honor. Claude Gillingwater and Emily Fitzroy are also along for the ride. Quite the cast.

Not a great film but certainly worth a look for the cast and for the superb John Gilbert.

This oddly-named film is so titled because the captain (Water Connolly) states this fact as his ship sets sail. The actual film, however has little to do with its captain. The upshot Columbia Pictures' "The Captain Hates the Sea" is done in the storytelling style of MGM's "Grand Hotel" but with more of the humor attempted in "Dinner at Eight" - you will be able to cast the "Dinner at Eight" stars quite easily into this film. The main story involves police detective Victor McLaglen (as Junius P. Schulte) following slight-of-hand Fred Keating (as Danny Checkett) on ship, seeking some swiped bonds (they're as good as money). Mr. Keating is, in turn, trails pretty Helen Vinson (as Janet Grayson), and both men become rivals for her affection...

That may be the main story, but the focus of attention clearly falls on fourth-billed John Gilbert (as Steve Bramley)...

Mr. Gilbert plays an alcoholic writer from Hollywood, taking the cruise to quit drinking and start writing his great American novel. Gilbert gets a good amount of screen time, and was, if you had to pick one of the "ensemble" cast, the main star of "The Captain Hates the Sea". Most importantly, this was Mr. Gilbert's last appearance, as he would die prematurely, in just over a year. Gilbert's death has been linked to his chronic alcoholism, and he appears drunk in this film. Since the role calls for him to be drunk, you could say he utilized "method" acting. But, really, on close inspection, this this was a sad role for a dying man. One of his co-stars also appears inebriated, and most of the top-billed men in the cast were notorious drinkers...

Gilbert had built a fairly solid career, over a decade, but his popularity exploded in 1925, due to appearances in "The Merry Widow" and "The Big Parade". In these two productions, Gilbert advanced himself not only as a romantic star, but also as a serious actor. The quality of Gilbert's performance had advanced so that no less than Lillian Gish chose him to co-star in her next production. And, later, Greta Garbo insisted he be cast in "Queen Christina" (1934), which turned out to be Gilbert's last excellent production. "Queen Christina" was also a big "box office" hit, out-grossing all of the older Garbo/Gilbert films. His earlier sound films weren't bad, either - but Gilbert was no longer a superstar, and he didn't know how to be anything but one.

***** The Captain Hates the Sea (10/22/34) Lewis Milestone ~ John Gilbert, Victor McLaglen, Fred Keating, Helen Vinson