Tugboat Annie
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Zelda Sears and Eve Greene from stories by Norman Reiley Raine
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Alexander ‘Alec’ Brennan: Mother! Are you all right? Did he strike you?
Annie Brennan: No! Your father has never struck me. Except in self-defense.
Marie Dressler shines as the titular tugboat captain and Wallace Beery adds to the fun as her ne’erd-do-well husband.
Annie Brennan (Dressler) struggles mightily to keep her tugboat business afloat. Her drunken husband Terry (Beery) keeps making mistakes that turn business away. They have a son Alec (Frankie Darro) who says he wants to drop out of school and work on the tug. Annie won’t have that. She has big plans for the boy.
Alec grows up to be Robert Young. He makes his mother proud when he becomes the youngest person to captain a luxury liner. Alec is engaged to Pat (Maureen O’Sullivan). He keeps urging his mother to dump his father but she refuses and the two become estranged. It will take a disaster to reunite them.
I like the stars and enjoyed the movie. Dressler has so much heart it’s hard not to fall in love with her.
