This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

That was an excellent one.

Just perfect...

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Associate producer: Harry Rapf. Producer: Irving Thalberg. Copyright 25 July 1933 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. U.S. release: 12 August 1933. New York opening at the Capitol: 11 August 1933. U.K. release: 3 February 1934. 87 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Down-and-out tugboat skipper is determined that her young son will make the grade as captain of an ocean liner.NOTES: With a domestic rentals gross of $1.5 million, "Tugboat Annie" came in at 9th place (in which it tied with Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer stablemates Dancing Lady and Queen Christina) as one of the most popular movies of 1933.A sequel "Tugboat Annie Sails Again" was released in 1940. A 39- episode half-hour TV series The Adventures of Tugboat Annie with Minerva Urecal hit the airwaves in 1957.COMMENT: A very entertaining picture, at turns movingly sentimental (in a shamelessly tough sort of way), funny, sad, nostalgic and highly dramatic; splendidly produced on a no-holds-barred budget on real locations enhanced by absolutely thrilling special effects; and most entrancingly acted by all concerned, particularly Beery, Dressler, Young and the lovely, charming Maureen O'Sullivan. Even Frankie Darro is tolerable (admittedly his footage is brief). LeRoy's direction is a model of unobtrusive yet highly effective direction. When you let strong actors loose with a strong script and indulgent production values, you don't need assertively flashy, self-conscious direction. True, there are some low camera angles, but they are dramatically apposite points-of-view from one of the characters on screen. Toland's attractively gray-toned, atmospheric photography also conjures up exactly the right mood for each scene. In fact, "Tugboat Annie" doesn't look the least bit like an M-G-M picture at all. The cramped yet extensive sets, dingily realistic (not aggressively "modern" with lots of space and curved white lines) are the work of Merrill Pye, working alone without the usual supervision of Cedric Gibbons. When executive producer Thalberg died, M-G-M virtually abandoned this style of "A"-budget film-making to concentrate on "the stuff that dreams are made of."

This is one of the few movies I've seen with Marie Dressler, and the only talkie I've yet seen of hers. This was her second teaming with Wallace Beery. He's her often-drunk husband who co-captains the sea ship Narcissus. Robert Young is their now-grown son and Maureen O'Sullivan is his fiancé. There are both some funny scenes and some more dramatic moments. There's no music score as this was an early talkie so sometimes, one may feel bored with some of the silences. The film meanders quite a bit though since the running time is less than 90 minutes, it doesn't wear out its welcome by much. Ms. Dressler would die about a year after this movie, but it's obvious by her performance she's not that easy to forget. So on that note, I recommend Tugboat Annie.

Tugboat Annie reunited Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler for a second time after the big hit they made with Min And Bill. Although that first film was more dramatic and Dressler got her Best Actress Award for Min And Bill, Tugboat Annie still has a lot of laughs and heart in it as Marie Dressler cares for her husband, child, and business which is running a salvage tug out of Puget Sound.Marie of course is in the title role and she skippers the USS Narcissus and works in a man's world. She lives on the tug with her husband and child Frankie Darro who grows up to be Robert Young. Beery is her shiftless drunken husband, but she's determined to raise their son to make something of himself.Flashing forward several years, Robert Young is now captain of an ocean liner and working for a former rival of Dressler's, Tammany Young who has worked his way up from the salvage business. Young is engaged to Tammany's daughter Maureen O'Sullivan, but he's not that crazy of his parents stepping into society, Marie doesn't fit and she knows it, and Beery is just Beery.Who periodically goes off on a toot and always lets his family down. However in the end during a crisis on the Narcissus, Beery does come through. It's why she loves and puts up with him.MGM put a little money into Tugboat Annie doing a whole lot of location shooting in Puget Sound. I don't know whether the cast got up there or their footage was done on the sound stage, but it certainly was blended in nicely with background shots.In real life Beery and Dressler hardly got along, then again Wallace Beery got along with very few people in the world. Still their on screen chemistry is not to be denied in Tugboat Annie which holds up every bit as good for today.

This film is awfully campy and is a pretty insignificant film. However, this isn't really that bad a thing, as the acting and writing make this movie so much fun. I loved Marie Dressler's wonderful performance in the title role--it was funny and incredibly entertaining. And, combining her with Wallace Beery was a brilliant idea--they worked well together. The only odd thing about this movie was casting Robert Young as their grown son. I can't imagine WHAT a child of this ugly union would look like, but I would imagine it would look more like Mike Mizurki or Victor McLaglen! A great example of wonderful old-fashioned fun from MGM.