Search - Affairs Of Cappy Ricks on DVD

Pushbutton Pappy

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 05/25/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the 1937 REPUBLIC Pictures programmer, AFFAIRS OF CAPPY RICKS, 42-year-old Walter Brennan once again plays a man considerably older than himself. He stars as a sea captain who comes home to find that his house has been redecorated and modernized by the meddling mom of his daughter's lamebrained fiancé.

Doors that open on an electric eye system, ugly statues and paintings and a pushbutton kitchen drive Cappy crazy. In desperation, he hatches a subterfuge that just may put his life back into order and simultaneously get the daughter to dump that barnacle she's soon to wed. Cappy invites the family, her ex-boyfriend and his future in-laws on a two-day cruise aboard his old schooner.

After 48 hours, they're 400 miles out to sea and Cappy has no intention of turning back. Their itinerary is an 8-week journey to the South Seas despite angry protests from the passengers. Cappy tries assigning work details to everyone but they go on a sitdown strike, so Capt. Ricks puts Plan B into operation.

After anchoring 5 miles off a deserted island and faking an on-ship fire, he and all but two crewmen take to the dinghy and row ashore. The smokepot fire is extinguished and Cappy's schooner heads for Hawaii, which is about a month distant. Everyone but Cappy and the ex-boyfriend (who's in on the scheme) thinks they're marooned. NOW they're willing to pull together to survive.

Cappy communicates every day with his boat from a radio hidden in the dinghy. When his daughter discovers it she also figures out that the schooner didn't really sink. Just as everything starts falling apart, a news broadcast comes over the radio saying that Cappy's ship has been lost at sea. Since their island is 300 miles off the shipping lanes, there's little hope of rescue now...

There's no huge laughs here, but the story's decent. The hour passes quickly enough and Mr. Brennan is always interesting. Give this one 3½ stars.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.7) Affairs of Cappy Ricks (1937) - Walter Brennan/Mary Brian/Lyle Talbot/Frank Shields/ Frank Melton/Georgia Caine/Phyllis Barry/William B. Davidson"