I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

To be completely honest here, I found this 1953, British, Comedy (about the captain of an international ferry boat who's juggling 2 wives at different ports) to be mighty low on laughs, for the most part. Through scenes of extended flashbacks, the viewer quickly learns how "that-swell-guy", Captain Harry James, was able to keep up his bigamist charade for 7 sweet years until, out of sheer carelessness, the 2 wives inevitably meet up, face-to-face, for a less-than-satisfying showdown. In the case of Harry's 2 wives - One was a prim & proper square, while the other was a let-your-hair-down hoofer. The vast contrast between the characters of these 2 women was, of course, supposed to help heighten the overall comic possibilities of the story. But, I found that this film needed much-much more than that to encourage any genuine laughter out of me. I really don't have much more to say about Captain's Paradise, except to add that its story was atrociously predictable on all counts. Perhaps if you're a fan of British cinema of the 1950s, then you'll enjoy this one more than I did.

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.

This is definitely my favorite British Comedy of the Fifties and like a good comfort food I never get tired of it.The Captain has contrived the perfect life with two wives, the one domestic, the other a night club dancer. One is in Gibraltar,the other a Morroccan port. A good part of the humor derives from the attitude of Rico, his first mate, who invests the Captain's experiment in bigamy with religious import. He pronounces the Captain "a genius" at least a dozen times in the film. For Rico, a Latin sadly resigned to the strictures of matrimony, Captain St. James is nothing less than a savior. On a broader level, much of the humor is aimed at the culture and mispronunciation of wogs in general, whether Rico, Nita, her other 'laver,' or any of the other Kalikan characters. Although the British Gibraltar people are also lampooned, though Majors & Marjories.But what gives the plot a note of divine justice is that the captain's downfall derives from the limitations of his grand conception itself. The human nature of each of his wives strains against the unnatural division of labor which he has crafted for the sake of his convenience. Thus Nita begins to cleave towards domesticity, while Maud yearns for the spice of life. And thus when Maud leaves him as a bore, she perfectly innocently assumes that the substitution of a matron to serve his rissoles will be fully to his satisfaction.Interestingly, while his conventional life with Maud simply comes to a dead end, it is his bohemian life with Nita that leads onward and upward into the next life chapter.

I had never seen this comedy nominated in the 1953 Academy Awards for for best screenplay. The previous comments echo most of my on sentiments. The cast includes Sebastian Cabot in a minor role. It is a show case for Ginnness's versatility. His dance sequneces are amazing. The whole ensemble is is excellent. And the two wives are perfectly cast.This classic Gunness comedy is included as a bonus film in Anchor Bays boxed set of DVDs, THE GUNNESS COLLECTION, which includes the five Ealing Studio Comedies, "Kind Hearts & Coronets", "The Lavender Hill Mob", The Man in the Whtie Suit" and "The Lady Killers". Amazon has the set for around $35...got to be one of the best bargain sets around.