Captain Hurricane

Old "CAPTAIN HURRICANE" (named for his periodic bouts of Lionel Barrymore temper) retires from the sea. During the course of the movie, he helps support two ineffectual fellow captains, adopts the shipwrecked daughter of another, and courts his pie baking housekeeper.

This is the type of movie folks who complain "they don't make them like they used to" usually seem to love. Though billed as comedy, the humor is so gentle as to be invisible, and there is enough incident to keep things from being bland. The roles are all character parts, so that we get to see pretty good second-rank character actors ply their trade at gentle yet irascible, vaguely new-england sorts. The dose of sentimentality is high, but does not overwhelm the picture.

In other words -- this is a genuine family picture, told by pros who know their craft, and not overburdened with after-school special moralizing or unfortunate stereotypes one has to explain to the kids at the end of the picture. This is nothing special, but maybe worth seeing with the kids and grandkids. It was watching old movies like this with my mom that got me hooked on old movies way back when.