The Captain's Paradise

The Captain's Paradise is a lesser known British film starring Sir Alec Guinness, who plays a ship captain in love with two women who live across the sea from each other.

The film opens with Guinness facing a firing squad, and urging them to "Get on with it." We soon learn that he was executed not long after failing to find the key to "happiness." He had traveled the world, from Persia to Australia, but never found it. Or did he?

Sounds depressing, but the film is a great one for a Sunday morning. It's a talky, character-driven film with manic music that seems a little anachronistic for the story at first, but maybe there's more to it than that. The captain himself appears to be in a manic search for what makes him happy. Even when he seems put together and seems buttoned down and stately, there's a lot going on under that.

I can see why this film isn't that well known in the states -- there's a lot of Spanish and Arabic that isn't subtitled. Guinness' character spends quite a bit of time teaching people English, correcting his cab driver's language, his girlfriend's, etc. It's as if he's trying to make the world his own, shaping those with whom he comes in contact — but only certain people. He has to scold his crew entirely in Spanish. Certain things are beyond his control. Most things are beyond his control, actually.

When the captain is untethered by the constraints of job and life, it is when his ship is moored. He can travel, stay in hotels, drink, and womanize. Well, that's when he's away from home. He's got a lover in North Africa, and when he goes to see her, he whistles for her upon entering her apartment, gives her flowers, and celebrates two years with her.

When he returns home to his wife (I figure it was a bit of a shock to audiences that he had a wife all along), we learn that he has a truly ordinary life — sensible, practical, and not the standard definition of "romantic." But the scene of his returning home is striking in its similarity to when he visits his lover. He enters, whistles for his wife, gives her a vacuum cleaner, and celebrates three years with her.

Guinness' character has found the perfect scheme -- two women who, together, fulfill all of his needs, from the practical to the romantic. But they must never meet.

Then the scheme starts to unravel.

I'm a big fan of Sir Alec. Unfortunately, he was frequently bothered late in his life because Star Wars fans, fond of his Obi-Wan Kenobi, forever pestered him and disregarded the rest of his career. I'm sort of glad that I got out of that phase and started appreciating his earlier work.