“TWO PINTS OF GUINNESS”

By Raymond Benson

Kino Lorber’s new double-bill Blu-ray release of comedy classics starring the legendary Alec Guinness features the nautical-themed The Captain’s Paradise (1953, a London Films production), and Barnacle Bill (1957, the last Ealing Studios production in which Guinness appeared). The former is often thought of as one of the Ealing comedies, but it is not so.

Paradise was nominated for the “Story” Academy Award (a category that no longer exists), and it was written by Alec Coppel (best known, perhaps as co-writer of the script for Vertigo). It is indeed a well-written and clever vehicle for Guinness, who delivers his usual above-it-all confident demeanor when his character is faced with domestic and professional disaster. He plays Captain Henry St. James, whom his chief officer Ricco (Charles Goldner) constantly calls a “genius” because Henry has found the perfect path to “paradise”—a double life with two women—one in the Spanish town of Kalique (actually Ceuta) in North Africa, next to Morocco, and one in Gibraltar. His ship, The Golden Fleece, makes regular trips between the two ports. He is married to Maud (Celia Johnson) in Gibraltar, and lives a quiet, early-to-bed, and happy but rather dull existence when he’s “home.” He also has a mistress (or a second wife?), Nita (Yvonne De Carlo), in Kalique, where he lives a more passionate and fiery life of dancing, drinking, and lovemaking. Henry manages to keep the two lives separate, until, well, he can’t.

In 1953, one can imagine that The Captain’s Paradise presented itself as something exotic and, in turn, quite hilarious. Humor especially abounds in the sequences in which Maud visits Kalique and accidentally meets Nita. Henry, in a panic, must exhibit his “genius” to remedy the situation.

Today, though, Paradise might be considered by some as problematic in that the story glorifies this man’s unfaithfulness to his wife. Apparently, he was supposed to have been married to both women in the original version of the script. It’s not particularly clear, though, whether Henry is married to Nita or simply shacking up with her. At one point he calls her “Madame” St. James, but that could be just an endearment. Frankly, the man is a cad, and he is celebrated for it. For the picture’s U.S. release, this aspect had to be changed to comply with the Production Code operating at the time, and other bits were censored. But film historian Stephen Vagg, author of an academia.edu paper on Coppel, opines, “The women have agency... both get sick of Guinness, rebel against their station in life and go off to have affairs with other men, and aren't punished for it (indeed De Carlo kills someone and gets away with it). The film is also fascinating from a sociological point of view because it’s about that generation of men who went off to war and wanted to come back to a world of quiet domesticity and cups of tea… but also longed at times for excitement and adventure... and it’s about women who are expected to be in one of two boxes (good girl/bad girl), but rebel against it.”

That said, it is difficult to determine if the version presented here on the Kino Lorber disk (it is true that the picture is the StudioCanal restoration) is the entire original UK theatrical release. Certain changes known to have been made to the film are indeed not present, and yet it runs only 89 minutes. Online sources indicate that the original theatrical release was 93 minutes. Vagg suspects that this is only a press release error supplied to online sites, for all home video releases of the film have been 89 minutes.

Despite all of this, all three leading performances are top-notch. Typical for the time, however, Caucasian British actors, wearing dark makeup, play Arabs (such as Sebastian Cabot as a black market vendor!). Quaint.

The 1957 feature, Barnacle Bill, fares better for its time, but it’s not on the same par as other Ealing comedies such The Lavender Hill Mob or The Ladykillers. In this one, William Ambrose (Guinness) comes from a long line of seamen (dating back to prehistoric man) and Guinness appears as each one in brief comedic scenes set through the ages. In the present, Ambrose, who suffers from seasickness and therefore can’t be on a sailing ship, buys a decrepit entertainment pier in England, restores it, and commandeers it as if it were a ship. When the town bigwigs try to shut him down, he and his loyal employees, including bathing houses manager, Mrs. Barrington (Irene Browne), work to foil the corrupt officials’ plans. Watch for brief appearances by future British stalwart actors such as a young Donald Pleasence, Lionel Jeffries, and Allan Cuthbertson.

Both films are presented in new 4K 1920x1080p restorations that look good enough. They come with optional English subtitles. The disc also contains the trailer for Captain's Paradise as well as three other Guinness releases. Kudos to Kino Lorber for making these Alec Guinness titles available in high definition for fans of classic British comedy.

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