A spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.A spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.A spoiled brat who falls overboard from a steamship in the 1920s gets picked up by a New England fishing boat, where he's made to earn his keep by joining the crew in their work.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 4 wins & 6 nominations total
- Priest
- (as Jack LaRue)
- 'Doc'
- (as Sam McDaniels)
- Charles
- (as Billy Burrud)
- Robbins
- (uncredited)
- Boy
- (uncredited)
- Bit Role
- (uncredited)
- Fisherman
- (uncredited)
- Reporter
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen production finally wrapped in late February 1937, Spencer Tracy was relieved. "Well, I got away with it," he said later. "Want to know why? Because of Freddie, because of that kid's performance, because he sold it 98 per cent. The kid had to believe in Manuel, or Manuel wasn't worth a quarter. The way he would look at me, believe every word I said, made me believe in it myself. I've never said this before, and I'll never say it again. Freddie Bartholomew's acting is so fine and so simple and so true that it's way over people's heads. It'll only be by thinking back two or three years from now that they'll realize how great it was."
- GoofsManuel has many siblings, yet Daniel says Manuel did not have any relatives.
- Quotes
Harvey: I bet I know a lot of things you don't know. I know that's not French you're singing.
Manuel Fidello: That's right. About ten million people know it Portuguese.
Harvey: I bet you can't speak French.
Manuel Fidello: Right now, I sorry I speak *English*.
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits are letters on planks, like the lettering on the side of ships, and between screen-fulls, a foaming wave of water splashes over it and then runs off. In the initial sets of credits, these appear to be actually letter-forms attached to the wood, as the water gets deflected by some of the letters; in later sets of credits, this effect is harder to see and the sets may be credits superimposed upon wood.
- ConnectionsEdited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
- SoundtracksOoh What a Terrible Man
(1937) (uncredited)
Lyrics by Gus Kahn
Music by Franz Waxman
Sung by John C arradine, Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, and other seaman
Nowhere is this more evident than with Freddie Bartholomew. The character he plays is a spoiled rich-kid, used to getting his own way and obnoxious with everyone he meets. Yet he plays the role in such a way that we can sympathize with him, rather than detest him. We understand the character, but we do not hate him.
Watch any similar movie made today, and the child actors will whine and sneer and have smart-mouthed replies to everything. In this movie, however, the character is not taken to that extreme, and when he makes his transition in the film we are able to love him, and are able to forget how horrid he was before.
The boy can truly act. When he cries for his loved ones, we cry with him. When he is happy, we are able to smile. And when he does something foolish, we do not get the urge to punch him in the face. The character is attractive by the end of the film, and that is a quality which few (if any) child actors possess today.
If you want to see a touching movie with superb acting and genuine emotion, this is the one.
- Exploding Penguin
- Sep 8, 2002
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,645,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1