hyped garbage

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An Anthony Kimmins Production for London Films. Released by British Lion in the U.K. (3 August 1953), by London Films in Australia (18 March 1954), by United Artists in the USA (18 December 1953).Copyright in the USA on 18 December 1953 by British Lion Film Corp., Ltd. Registered: June 1953. "A" certificate. Original length: 8,400 feet. Running times: 93 minutes (UK), 88 minutes (Australia), 77 minutes (USA). New York opening at the Paris: 28 September 1953. Sydney opening at the Embassy.SYNOPSIS: This sailor — he's the captain actually — has a wife in every port — well actually just two ports. Needless to say, the ship runs a continuous shuttle service from one port to the other.COMMENT: Takes some time to get under way but emerges as a fairly amusing comedy, thanks to the talents of Alec Guinness and Charles Goldner and despite the lack-luster direction of Anthony Kimmins. Fortunately, the script has a good, basic comedy idea, which Guinness and Goldner exploit to the hilt. The support players do all that is required of them, though one does get tired of Yvonne De Carlo's perpetually fractured English.Production values are up to "A" standard, though it is very obvious that not a single member of the professional cast left the comfort of the studio, as all the 2nd unit shots are poorly matched.

For some reason I had never gotten around to seeing this film. Unusual for me since I have been a Guiness fan for many years. Now I find that I am rather sorry I bothered. It fails completely as comedy and can only have been reviewed favorably at the time of it's release due to the performances -- all good in a poor cause! The problem begins with a screen play that is strained at every turn. The major flaw is that the Guiness character is a totally unlikable sort. A selfish, petty little man who uses people with little care for them. Not even the great Alec Guiness can manage to make this fellow one that we give two hoots in hell about. The film suffers further from one of the very worst musical scores I have ever heard. It is loud, frantic, intrusive, and very ugly. In the final analysis this is one of the most tedious films I have ever sat through (and I love movies and have seen many in my seventy plus years). I note that a number of those commenting have attributed this film to Ealing Studios. It isn't. It was produced by London Productions (see the details on the main page for this film). For those of you who are fans of Sir Alec Guiness's work and who have not seen this film, my advice is to skip it. Watching it will simply disappoint you.

Alec Coppel received an Oscar nomination for his original story (thin as it is) regarding a married steamship Captain in Gibraltar--intelligent, multi-lingual, work-oriented, and seemingly stuffy or conservative--who keeps a mistress in Algiers, a red-hot mama who can't cook but dances until dawn! Resting on Alec Guinness' easy lead performance, the film begins very well and has several comic highlights, one of which is Guinness hitting the dance floor with fiery Yvonne De Carlo. But when the Captain's cooped-up wifey decides she wants more excitement in her life--and the mistress expresses a sudden desire for a life of domesticity--the picture hasn't any place left to go. Framed in flashback for expository purposes, Coppel's script with Nicholas Phipps has a handful of amusing ideas, the rest being rather obvious and silly (though perhaps not in 1953). Guinness, looking snappy and comically striking, nearly keeps the picture afloat with his panache. ** from ****

I enjoyed this comedy, which demonstrates that one can't have one's cake and eat it too. Alec Guiness has found that he has a perfect recipe for happiness by being a bigamist. He has one wife in Gibraltar (Celia Johnson) and one in Ceuta (Yvonne De Carlo). As his business is running a ferry service between the two cities he has reason to be gone at least a night or two from either wife. He chooses Celia to mirror the perfect domestic spouse, and Yvonne for the perfect excitement spouse. But in truth both women are increasingly unhappy by the uneven state of their marriages. Johnson wants to go out with her husband to night spots, and De Carlo wants to cook him a dinner, and maybe play some bridge or charades with him. Instead of willingly switching the formula, Guiness foolishly prevents both women from getting their desire, and looses them both. Ironically they never discover he committed bigamy.It is not as good as "The Lavender Hill Mob", or "The Ladykillers", or "The Man in the White Suit" or "The Horse's Mouth", but it is as good as "The Card". Although admittedly second tier Guiness it is popular. It is also the only film of Guiness's to be mentioned in the television series "Car 54 Where Are You?". Lucille Toody thought it was so romantic. Imagine Gunther with two wives in the Bronx and Queens?