The Captain's Table

From The Goon Show Depository

The Captain's Table
The Captain's Table.jpg
Directed byJack Lee
Written byBryan Forbes
Jack Whiting
Nicholas Phipps
Based onThe Captain's Table
by Richard Gordon
Produced byJoseph Janni
StarringJohn Gregson
Donald Sinden
Peggy Cummins
Nadia Gray
Maurice Denham
CinematographyChristopher Challis
Edited byFrederick Wilson
Music byFrank Cordell
Production
company
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release date
6 January 1959
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Captain's Table is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Jack Lee based upon a novel by Richard Gordon. It stars John Gregson, Donald Sinden, Peggy Cummins and Nadia Gray, and featured Maurice Denham, Joan Sims, John Le Mesurier, Richard Wattis and Reginald Beckwith in leading supporting roles.

The film is based on the 1954 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon. This was later adapted into the 1971 German film The Captain starring Heinz Rühmann.

Plot

After serving all his working life with the South Star line, exclusively in cargo ships, Captain Albert Ebbs meets his employer (John le Mesurier) and is finally given command (albeit temporarily) of the SS Queen Adelaide, a cruise liner sailing from London to Sydney. An excellent seaman, he finds that he now has many social obligations that he does not have the skills to fulfil. He must preside at the captain's table, host cocktail parties, judge beauty contests and dance with the lady passengers. He must also cope with amorous widows, young couples who want him to marry them and a blustering ex-army major who claims to have the ear of the chairman of the shipping line.

To add to his woes, most of the officers and crew, led by the chief purser, are on the fiddle. The captain doesn't fully realise this until the last night of the cruise, when champagne being served is revealed to be cider, with the crew pocketing the considerable profits.

All comes out well - just. The captain finds himself engaged to be married to an attractive widow, the chief officer is also engaged to a young heiress, and the larcenous officers are arrested by Sydney police.

Cast

References

External links