Spencer Tracy won his first of two back-to-back Oscars for playing a Portugese fisherman in this tear jerker from 1937.Tracy becomes a father figure to a spoiled brat rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) when the kid falls overboard off an ocean liner and is picked up by the fishing trawler. Familiar actors like Lionel Barrymore, Mickey Rooney, and Charlie Grapewin play the other fishermen, and Bartholomew predictably learns the value of hard work and ethics from this merry band.While overall I thought "Captains Courageous" was a solid if unspectacular film, I was surprised by its treatment of the central theme (fatherhood) and its ending. Bartholomew is reunited with his absentee father (Melvyn Douglas), who learns the error of his ways and is determined to be more there for his kid. That I expected. But what I didn't expect was the unspoken but very obvious fact that the relationship between father and son was permanently stunted by the fact that the son found a father figure he liked better, that his true father understood that, and resigned himself to having the best relationship he could under those limitations. That's a pretty mature conclusion for a film from this time period, and one that certainly remains relevant today.Victor Fleming provides the direction, which was not among the four categories for which this film was Oscar-nominated. In addition to Tracy, the film won nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.Grade: B+

This movie is not to be confused with the book. This movie is a Freddie Bartholomew starring film. Following Freddie's major success in David Copperfield, this movie was a natural fit for the child actor. There is the Wizard of Oz connection here too.We have Director Victor Fleming and Charlie Grapewin as Uncle Salters who would later be Uncle Henry. His support in this one is essential to the plot as the story is told. This one develops a major relationship between Freddie and Spencer Tracy (Harvey & Manuel that tugs at the heart strings. The film is a major success for both.Freddie is a sort spoiled rich kid who is sailing on an ocean liner and accidentally falls off it trying to hide from his friends. He is accidentally rescued by Manuel(Tracy) and winds up on a fishing boat.The spoiled Harvey tries to buy his way off of the boat at first but then finds out he can not and then finds Manuel to change his entire life. Harvey was never close to his own dad so Manuel becomes a replacement for him. As the relationship grows, the emotions do too, until tragedy strikes the relationship, as Manuel is killed.From there, the fishing boat finally makes shore with Harvey sad about the death, but no longer the spoiled brat he once was. He even gets closer to his dad at the end. The movie works well, and is not the typical happy ending when Harvey gets home that many films were in the 1930's. This one shows emotional dimension.

This is one of those films I recall very fondly from my childhood (on TV in the '70s, I hasten to add, my having been born three decades too late to catch its original release) and now, after having watched it again for the first time in probably 30 or 35 or so years, I recall it just as fondly. It's a classic tale from Kipling, a potent mix of morality play and coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a hazardous and hard-earned way to make a living. The fishing and sailing scenes are, as others have noted, very realistically presented and I see I am not alone in noticing that the actors were capable enough with their marine duties to make it look like they really WERE old hands at that sort of thing (something I noticed first with Mickey Rooney, who carried on his tasks with great efficiency, as if they were second nature, even while delivering dialog...his presence in the film is small but it's still a real standout).This film is loaded to the gunwales with talented actors, including some of the all-time greats. The incomparable Spencer Tracy, for example, is magnificent (and, yes, the scene where he faces down Carradine's character, with real menace suddenly supplanting his otherwise easy-going demeanor is a very powerful moment), and he here again proves why he is considered one of the very best actors to ever have worked in Hollywood. Lionel Barrymore is absolute perfection as the skipper, totally convincing in every detail. John Carradine, too, is 100% believable and a magnetic screen presence even by now. Melvyn Douglas, too, has captured a very nuanced and understated take on a character who is not in most of the picture but who is vital to its working. Every other actor in the ensemble delivers, too, just right.Young Freddie Bartholomew, of course, has the significant burden of basically carrying the film -- somewhat daunting even if your co-stars didn't include such as Tracy and Barrymore -- and he succeeds magnificently. He's utterly on target and convincing as the spoiled little brat who finally gets shaped into some sort of a better person, on the road to being a better man than he would have been had he not fallen off that ship. He's really a wonder in this film, perhaps one of the very best child actors ever. The depth of his hero-worship and love for Manuel, who he obviously contrasts to his more distant and workaholic father, is tangible and touching. He may be young still but, by the end, he's a man, or well on his way to being a real man, and not the kind of 'real man' who's some overbearing macho blowhard; he's had better examples than that aboard the schooner and his father's own journey, off-camera, suggests he'll do his best to be such an example. Manuel would have been very proud.

With Captains Courageous director Victor Fleming and his scenarists pull off a nail-biting high seas adventure laced with powerful emotions. This adaptation of a Kipling story begins psychologically and on land as we are introduced to a nasty, spoiled, rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) who uses his social standing to get whatever he wants. When he goes too far and gets suspended from school, his neglectful and over-indulgent father (Melvyn Douglas) decides to take him on a trans-Atlantic voyage to reconnect and bring his offspring into line. However, after showing off to some other kids by buying and drinking five chocolate sodas, the queasy boy falls overboard. He is scooped out of the water by a Portuguese fisherman named Manuel (Spencer Tracy) and deposited on a fishing trawler captained by crusty Lionel Barrymore and a seasoned crew. There, predictably, the tough seafarers knock him down to size and force him to grow up. Although Tracy won an Oscar for his portrayal of the saintly Manuel, equally impressive is 10-year-old Freddie Bartholomew in his evolution from a clever but destructive and insensitive little brat to a responsible, productive young man, all the while gradually bonding with Tracy whom he comes to regard as a father figure. The film seesaws from high action, with the crew struggling to harvest the bounty of the pitiless ocean in competition with rival trawlers, to intimate drama as Bartholomew slowly and painfully learns that the world does not revolve around him and his immediate needs. The production itself holds up very well. The viewer's nose is rubbed into the slime and grime of primitive fish processing in several sequences that also serve to put us into the child's position, thereby strengthening the impact of his ordeal in our imaginations. Close shots of shipboard life are seamlessly intercut with long shots of actual vessels on the open sea. Among the supporting players, it is a pleasure to report that Mickey Rooney and John Carradine actually get to play regular guys instead of the "types" usually assigned to them.It is the combination of the deep and timeless emotions connected with the parent-child relationship and old-fashioned adventure skillfully presented that make this one a classic.