“You're too young to be telling a crew of men what you'll

do and what you'll don't" : Punishing a “Junior

Machiavelli”.
Alba M.

This article will concentrate on Captains Courageous

(1937), starring Bartholomew and Tracy. The first section
will be a direct analysis of the content of the movie and
the other will be shorter and focus on the context and
reception of the movie.

Watching Captains Courageous (1937):

The movie begins with Harvey requesting breakfast in
bed which is already supposed to evidence the fact that
he is spoiled and bratty. The behavior is explicitly coded
as “feminine", like a “sissy”, and also correlated to
immaturity, he is considered a “boy" at the beginning
and a “young man" at the end by reviewers[1]. But he is
painted as worse than just spoiled and bratty, he bribes
friends and teachers exploiting his power. He does not
explicitly fit the media paradigm of the “evil child", but
comes close to it. The fantasy of punishing an “evil child"
is at the center of the movie, and it is a common fantasy
among adults that reflects the broader problem of
contempt for children in our society. Physical abuse
against him is condoned, as we are first shown when the
movie paints another boy punching him as an act of
justice. Physical abuse against him is not only condoned
when it comes from other boys, but as we will see, also
when it comes from men. The way he smears ink on
himself to make it look like he suffered worse abuse
evidences another trait of the personality of Harvey's
character, that he exploits the vulnerability attributed to
(white) children for his own ends. Because children are
cast in a subordinate position, they are widely seen as
weak and vulnerable. The fact that he exploits his
subordination for his own gain is seen as an aberration of
childhood. He is also claiming that his teacher Mr. Tyler
abused him, while Mr. Tyler only reprimanded him and
gave him a non corporal punishment. The teachers then
reveal his father it was a lie. Which will make his father
exclaims: “It seems that I have begotten a sort of junior
Machiavelli", evil children or even just “bad" children in
media are often portrayed also as intelligent and
cunning. Society generally expects children not to be very
intelligent, often negative characteristics are associated
with intelligent children in media because of that. His
teacher attributes Harvey's behavior to the lack of
closeness with his father, which is part of the movie’s
patriarchal outlook. The movie is patriarchal not just
because the privilege of rich men never comes under
question, in fact children can only borrow their father's
money, Harvey virtually has none. So, it would have been
much more compelling to have Harvey's punishment
enacted on his father, but that would make the movie an
impossible feminist and queer narrative, or because
Harvey's bad behavior is blamed on his father leaving
him “on his own", the idea being quite explicit, freedom
hurts children. But also because the father is seen as the
most important figure in a child's, especially a son’s, life,
and as a desired and eroticized figure, elevated to an
almost godlike status. The narrative is thoroughly
sexualized. There is an implication that Harvey is trying to
falsely accuse Mr. Tyler of sexual assault. In a scene,
Harvey pretends to be dreaming and says: “Don't, Mr.
Tyler, please don't", which can hardly be interpreted in a
different way. We know how rare false rape allegations
are against non racialized men. Mr. Tyler is a white
boarding school teacher, a type of sexual abuser that
boys were notoriously not believed about historically.
The message that is sent here is that junior Machiavellis
lie about sexual abuse, and they shouldn’t be believed.
And many parents could have imagined their child was
one because they were a rebellious child. This is were the
real humiliation of Harvey by adults will start, with the
subtle interrupting of his explaining by his father. After
forcing the bartender to open the bar, he eats six ice
creams to prove that he can and everyone delights in his
suffering. While trying to escape humiliation by two
other boys, he falls from the ship. A Portuguese, or the
racist caricature of a Portuguese, fisherman rescues him.
It is very frequent in movies to see boys who are rescued
by men who become their surrogate father figures,
particularly if the boy's biological fathers are not
considered appropriate by patriarchal standards[2]. We
now see a black cook who is a racist caricature, in Victor
Fleming, director of Gone With The Wind, style. We are
also introduced to Dan, a case of internalized oppression,
remarking with scorn that he'd like to be captain himself
while Harvey is talking to the captain, and mocking the
fact that he feels uncomfortable in the new clothes. By
now the fishermen only interact with him using
patronizing names, and by grabbing him and pushing him
around. The captain calls him an “upset boy" and his
complaining of something completely reasonable is
dismissed as a “yarn", in the Italian version “le fantasie di
un ragazzo isterico", the “fantasies of an hysterical boy".
Again he is seen as weaponizing the idea of white
boyhood vulnerability, by telling the fishermen that his
father will put them in jail for kidnapping him, which is
exactly when the captain slaps him, which is again
condoned, and he, outraged exclaims “You hit me". This
is also when we see that Manuel is more affectionate
than other fishermen, calling him “little fish" and giving
him a preferential treatment. He will also mistreat him to
fit with the others. We will soon see the encoded
pedophilic love story between Harvey and Manuel.
Manuel in fact, states at the mortified Harvey with a bit
of sadness in his eyes and he is told by his peers that he
is slacking, while Harvey is thrown fishes on. In the
following scene the captain approaches him again and
tells him: “Now, mind what I told you, son. You're too
young to be telling a crew of men what you'll do and
what you won't do”, which encompasses the general
attitude towards children, and he is denied food because
he refuses to work. At dinner all the men laugh and insult
him, and claim he brings bad luck because he is a
passenger, and when Dan is referenced they say, in
patriarchal fashion that the captain's son isn't a
passenger. Manuel tells them he loves kids like “rat
poison" and that Harvey is “two tubes". Soon we will see
that it is true, as a sexualized bond with both sides being
equally invested will establish itself. He now has to
convince him to work. Harvey tells him he is as bad as the
rest of the fishermen, but Manuel's behavior is more
performative, there are strong implications that he does
not want to be excluded from the rest of the men by
behaving humanely with a boy even if he desires to do
so, but mainly because that boy is Harvey, not because of
a real principle. He also makes a remark on them being
alone on the dory. As Manuel refuses, Harvey tries to go
by himself and as Manuel tries to stop him he hits him.
Manuel then hits the boy back, and he is about to cry,
which surprises Manuel as it is a show of vulnerability
from a boy who was previously coded as unchildlike in his
arrogance. The theme of crying returns often in the
movie, even if only while mourning Manuel Harvey does
not stop himself, which of course feeds the constructing
of children as more emotional than men. The theme of
crying is also important because of the love song,
inexplicitly pedophilic that Manuel will sing throughout
the movie. Despite the fact that Manuel wants to make
him go eat despite the fact that he did not work, Harvey
humiliates him by revealing that he did not, in fact, work.
But then Harvey says that he “made him" do something,
which the other fishermen probably thought was more.
The captain asks Manuel how did he manage to make
him do it, and Manuel replies “Ah, he do anything for
me" loudly, but then turns back and exclaims: “Even
break my leg, too".
In this scene Manuel will sing his famous theme, “Oho
little fish", it is a love song, which is clearly inspired by
Harvey. The lines “Don't cry, don't cry", are a reference
to the fact that he was about to cry before. The song is
also a reference to Manuel's secret feelings that he can't
express among the other fishermen. But Harvey is on the
deck as well, listening to the song, which is one of the
many romantic tropes of the movie. Harvey tells him that
if Manuel hadn’t choked him he wouldn't have hit him,
which is one of the first times where the fact that Harvey
has a liking for Manuel is shown to us, and Manuel
replies that he felt nothing. Harvey remarks that the
night is beautiful, and Manuel keeps treating him badly,
which is, as I said, performative. Manuel ridicules him by
saying there is nothing in his head because of a mistake
he made, which is supposed to feed the narration that
Harvey is an empty headed kid, despite being a
manipulative “junior Machiavelli” who exploits his
superior intelligence, of course claiming that enemies are
both dangerous and pathetic is a common strategy.
Manuel also idolizes his dead father, which is part of the
patriarchal narration, Harvey dismisses that which is
supposed to portray him as heartless (but also more
emotional than men).
They keep grabbing and pushing him, and then Manuel
tries to force him to go to sleep. There is another
moment coded as romantic. Manuel keeps singing and
Harvey turns back and instead of going to sleep listens to
the song, which is clearly about him as I said.
The day after, we find out that Harvey has slept on the
deck, and another fisherman ridicules Manuel and the
fact that he said he was like a “tub of poison” but tucked
him to sleep, even somehow implying that Manuel has
played a motherly (loving) rather than a fatherly
(disciplinarian) role with him, which in a man, who are
not supposed to be too tender with children, can only
imply a sexualized interest. Manuel immediately denies
that, and in this scene will treat him worse than in other
parts of the movie, to try to reassert himself with his
peers. But Long Jack doesn't let Manuel fool him: “I
suppose he pulled your coat around him, too", a man
giving someone his coat is often a trope in romance, but
it is something that in media men frequently do with
children as well, and Manuel tries to claim that yes, he
did. “Sure, he stole it right off your back", Long Jack still
doesn't believe him:
“So our big, tough fisherman is going to throw him back
to the fishes, eh?”. This wounds Manuel deeply. Harvey
approaches him and says: “Thanks for covering me up
with your coat and everything", “I—I never did thank you
for saving my life, I ought to thank you for that, all right",
lines evidencing that Harvey is changing because of the
fact that he likes Manuel, a liking which is much better
encompassed by the word “crush". When he sees the
other fisherman approaching, Manuel’s tone, which was
previously normal, changes, and he starts shouting at
Harvey. In the next scene, Harvey keeps trying to fit in,
and is ridiculed. Manuel tells him that boys do not have
the right to laugh at the same things that men do: “They
got right to laugh", and when a laugh escapes him for
another reason, Manuel humiliates him: “Like seagull".
When Harvey tells him that he wants to help Manuel
replies: “Yes, but you want to do just what you want to
do". The most important massage this movie was
supposed to send its audience is that children do not
have a right to do what they want, but adults do, “I tell
you what to do". Which is still one of the founding views
centering childhood. But again, this behavior on
Manuel's part comes from the fact that he is trying to
reestablish his image among his fellow fishermen: “Ah,
you think Manuel soft with that kid, huh?”. And yet
reviewers consider that an important “life lesson" from
Manuel[3]. Manuel further humiliates Harvey by tricking
him to spit in the wind, with predictable outcomes,
Harvey of course does not get mad, because he is
“changing", meaning he now tolerates abuse, as he is
clearly in love with Manuel. After he has done that, Long
Jack looks at Manuel approvingly. His behavior at this
point is easily read as, in a movie that is still patriarchal, a
critique of the way peer pressure can somehow influence
men to be cruel with those who are considered “weaker”
than them and in a subordinate position. But the
audiences did not receive it that way. After that has
happened, he approaches Dan to ask him who goes
fishing with Manuel. It is implied Harvey feels sorry for
Manuel’s loneliness. Harvey and Dan never talk to each
other without referencing an adult, in fact during the
conversation we unsurprisingly find out that Dan too
idolizes his father, there is no conversation between
them on the treatment of children on the boat, even if of
course because he is the captain's son Dan is not treated
badly. He too has an antipathy for Harvey as we've seen.
In the next scene in fact Harvey directly approaches
Manuel and asks him to go fishing with him, first by
alluding to the fact that it is dangerous to go alone, and
Manuel is surprised that this morning Harvey seems to
be “foolish" (how people often act when they have a
crush), because he has no one to row with, and then by
saying that he rowed a boat at school and that he could
go with him. Of course Manuel dismisses him, and
Harvey replies with confidence listing all he learned in a
book he found in the captain's cabin, and then finally
gets mad at Manuel, telling him he doesn't want to fish
with him anymore. This scene implies Harvey is tired of
the abuses Manuel perpetrated on him to fit in with the
other fishermen. Manuel remarks to the captain that
Harvey is smart, and the captain replies: “About time to
break his neck, ain't it?” the implication of course being
that smart children are insufferable and inspire violence
in adults.
Two scenes after, the cook reassures us that there is not
much “Jonah" left in Harvey, he is even serving dinner,
the position of servant being the role boys historically
covered in ships. Manuel says that tomorrow he will
bring Harvey to fish with him, and he bets his razor with
Long Jack that they will catch more fish than him and
Nate, another fisherman. Long Jack corrects Manuel:
“Togesser" Speak English, will you?”, “More fish as me
and Nate together”, and Harvey corrects Long Jack:
“More fish than you and Nate together”. He hasn't lost
his presumption of knowing more than adults, there is
still “Jonah” in him.
There is more solidarity between the cook and Harvey
than between Harvey and Dan, because Dan is the
captain's son which manages to make age less of a
burden, while the cook is subordinated because of his
race. When Manuel told him that he won't fish
tomorrow, but will only sit there, he told the cook that
he will fish and the cook congratulated him.
Harvey who is still Jonah sabotages Long Jack's dory, yes,
we know it is because he has heard that Manuel's razor is
a prized possession of his and he is in love with him and
determined not to make him lose it, but also because the
movie had coded Harvey in the previous scene still as a
rebellious child, he is not “fully converted" if he corrects
men's speaking, which means he is still prone to
dishonesty.
Harvey tells Manuel the next day, while they are fishing,
that he did not mean what he said about not going into
his boat, apologizes about what he said, and swears he
will not bring bad luck. When Manuel tells him he will
start calling him by his name, he smiles at him, a quite
coy smile actually, and Manuel congratulates him: “You
no laugh like seagull now", the difference is that before
Harvey's laugh was noisy, while the one he gave Manuel
is just a smile. Adults are allowed to make noise, to make
themselves heard, children are not. He humiliates him
because while trying to row he falls on his back, which is
completely normal considering that the rows are bigger
than him. Children have to be weak but they should also
be shamed for it, is the message. He also invalidates his
emotions and the fact that he feels anxious, “You leave
me anxious”. And when he is fishing: “I told you. Stay
away from that anxious business".
Then they start talking about Manuel's father, who died
in a storm, echoing the way Manuel will also die. They
are also named the same.
After Manuel has talked to him about Christ, Harvey
manages to catch a big fish, when all of his previous
attempts had failed. Manuel congratulates him, but then
we see the results of Harvey's sabotage.
Harvey admits to Manuel that he sabotaged Long Jack's
dory, and he throws the fish Harvey had caught back to
the sea. Harvey's nature just compels him to cheat and to
not respect adults, after all just as Manuel does not
respect children, he is simply in love with Harvey, the
reverse is true for Harvey. In fact to him, that was an act
of love.
It takes more for him to change.
Two scenes later, Manuel is mocking Harvey with the
cook, who seems to be amused, but maybe just feels
compelled to please Manuel.
But that isn't condemned because we are about to see,
in the immediately following scene, another common
romantic trope.
Manuel gives the razor to Long Jack, and tries to pretend
that there was no sabotage. At the beginning Long Jack is
only accusing Manuel, but then he also accuses Harvey,
and says: “If I found he put his Jonah flippers into my
trawl, I'll wind him twice around the capstan and break
him off short”. Manuel keeps denying.
Long Jack and Manuel start fighting, and Harvey
intervenes: “Long Jack, don't. It wasn't Manuel. I did it
last night. I didn't mean you should get the hooks in your
arm, honest, I didn't. I just thought we'd have a little fun--
", Manuel is evidently pleased, not realizing Harvey does
not care about honesty, he cares about him. Long Jack
gets violent with Harvey, and Manuel then grabs Long
Jack and says “Long Jack, what you do?”, he replies “You
keep out of this, Portugoosey", Manuel remarks that: “He
admit the whole thing like a regular grown fella",
because children in this reading are naturally dishonest
and cowardly. He sees Long Jack still wants to beat
Harvey up, and Manuel gets really violent with him
exclaiming: “You touch that kid, I tear you apart” “Me—
Manuel talking. I tear you apart, see?”, “So don't get me
mad, Long Jack, I get all crazy and sick inside", Long Jack
is terrified and lets go, while Harvey is there watching. Of
course two men fighting over someone in this manner is
unquestionably a trope widely used in romantic media.
There is a pan on Harvey's face and he is impressed by
Manuel's behavior.
Harvey is trying to go to bed, and Manuel grips his
backside, which is evidently not considered a private part
in this movie, and softly asks: “What's the matter, little
fish? You sleepy?”, Harvey replies: “I'm so ashamed,
Manuel". Manuel reassures him that it's fine. Manuel
then starts singing to him, an aria his father taught him
to which he added words, it references a school of fish
“where the little fish study geography", which is again
about Harvey, whom as we've seen liked to boast about
his school, and that makes Harvey emotional to the point
he is about to cry.
After long scenes of them at sea, there is one of the most
important scenes because it is the most sexualized.
Harvey asks Manuel what he will do ashore, and Manuel
first says that he will light a candle for his father, and
then he adds, one for himself as well. He says: “I have
few bad thoughts this trip". It is clear that it is implied
that Harvey's presence or more generally that of a boy
who is not the captain's son so not a protected category
is the cause of “bad thoughts”. Harvey tells him: “You've
never had bad thoughts", and Manuel replies: “Oh, sure”,
Harvey boldly asks him to tell him one, and Manuel says
that he has forgotten them. This is quite an audacious
sexual reference for 1937. But it isn't quite as audacious
as the one that follows it, Manuel tells him he wants to
go with girls, and a shocked Harvey asks: “Girls?”, and
after he has replied that he has many beautiful girls in
Gloucester, an highly upset Harvey exclaims: “Oh, you
don't go with the girls”. Manuel tries to exclaim: “Every
man go with gir-", but he stops himself as he sees that
Harvey is about to cry. He lies to him by telling him that
he was joking and he won't.
But why is Harvey upset? Of course this is a lover's
jealousy, and his reaction at the line “every man go with
girls" could indicate a queer future for him, even if at the
time these sort of crushes were conceptualized as a
normal part of a boy's development, just as Manuel's
attraction to Harvey does not undermine his
heterosexuality.
“Every man” might “go with girls" but Harvey hesitates
and then says, tearfully: “I want to be with you, Manuel".
Manuel caresses his face, and replies: “My little fish".
It would be easy to say that at the end Harvey too
became an idolizer of a father figure, but Manuel really
isn't a father figure at all, he is a lover that he chose. This
is why he has to die. This is the real punishment of the
junior Machiavelli. Even while dying Manuel tries to hide
that he is, not to hurt Harvey too much. His last act on
earth is an attempt to satisfy a child's desires. His last act
on earth is trying reassure Harvey that everything is fine,
“We laugh, we sing. So you smile now", “Manuel, he be
watching you", “You'll be the best fisherman, little fish".
Long Jack respects the romantic bond there was between
Manuel and Harvey, he knows Harvey is ten so he is not
growing a beard anytime soon, but he uses that as
excuse to give Harvey Manuel's razor. Harvey asks Dan:
“If someone liked someone a great deal and he didn't
have any kin, that would sort of make them a kin almost,
wouldn’t it?”, that is called a marriage, Harvey.
Manuel's death forces adults to not respect Harvey's
wishes again, without a man who was at least in theory a
substitute father, he cannot keep following his new
dream of being a fisherman, he has to be returned to his
owner.
When at dinner with the captain Harvey's father does not
realize that Manuel is dead, Harvey, who was clearly
uncomfortable, runs away. When his father asks if he can
come, we see his old personality resurfacing: “No!”, but
then he immediately corrects himself. He did not become
a “man", as reviewers claim[4], that should be clear
considering that he still has no rights, but he also did not
become a “good boy". He just learned how to perform
childhood better to please adults, after all a well behaved
child is just a good actor. All children are junior
Machiavellis when no one is looking.
There is an hint of a jealousy in the way Harvey's father
talks about Manuel. His father says Harvey is “The kind of
boy I always hoped he’d be”, which is exactly why this
movie is adultist. No criticism of the privilege of the rich
is made as I said. Harvey has not learned to respect less
privileged people, he has “”learned to respect”” adults.
The captain says, with an almost sinister undertone in his
voice, “Mmm, yes. They was real dorymates, Mr Cheyne",
implying it was common knowledge that Manuel and
Harvey's relationship was out of the ordinary, but that
said, Mr.Cheyne ought not to worry: “That don't say you
can't sail it after him". After all, the captain says while
caressing Dan, “A boy's never too old to need a dad".
Harvey's in church, lighting the candles that Manuel told
him he wanted to light when they arrived at Gloucester,
and also lighting one for Manuel himself.
He asks the priest to go away, as the mourning of his
lover was supposed to be a private matter, but his father
violates his privacy and he enters the church, hearing
things like: “I got to be with Manuel". The fact that
Harvey is not aware his father is listening casts him in an
even more vulnerable position.
Harvey goes to Manuel's dory to weep, and even there
he can't receive privacy from adults. His father tries to
tell him: “I know about it. I know about Manuel". Harvey
cries and begs to be left alone.
Harvey's torture from adults never seems to end, all he is
asking is to be left alone for a while and that too is
negated to him. He begs him especially not to get in the
dory, “This is Manuel's dory. Manuel's and mine".
After all he went through, “I want to be where Manuel
is", meaning, wanting to be dead, seems like something
reasonable.
His father says “I'm lonely too", and by now Harvey has
been taught that adult feelings should be privileged over
his own.
While commemorating Manuel’s death, Harvey tries to
hold his father's hand, but the supremacy of adults has to
be affirmed even in this scene, his father takes control of
the hand holding.
It should be again stressed that there is no comment on
class and the privilege of the upper classes, his father is
going to take him on an expensive trip the day
immediately after he invited the captain to dinner and he
is going to keep spoiling Harvey rotten.
The narrative really is about insecure men who fear that
“bad” children will undermine their authority.
But it is also much more.
It is also about a strong boy many children watching
identified with, including me, because I was him, even
tough I was all but rich. I once showed it to my mother
and she said: “This was you if you were a boy".
I too was considered a “junior Machiavelli" and I too was
punished. And yet, I've never doubted once that children
are human and that they do not deserve to be treated as
less than adults.
And also about a strong boy navigating an hostile space,
surviving and also experiencing love for the first time as
Captains Courageous (1937) is probably still one of the
few movies portraying intergenerational love inexplicitly
but in a clear enough way that it is easy for most to read
the subtext. It still remains an important watch, as all
Freddie Bartholomew movies are, for the study of the
depictions of children in cinema. And it remains an
important watch, if looked at with a critical eye I believe
most children have, without an adult explaining the
meaning, for the children of the present and the future.

Beyond Watching Captains Courageous (1937):

Captains Courageous (1937), an adaptation which is very
different from Kipling's book, came out only six years
later after a book by James Hanley, called Boy (1931),
was published in “a public edition which, of regretful
necessity, has been expurgated”.[1] It was heavily
criticized, even if it received T.E Lawrence's praise. [2]
When it was republished in 1934, “Boy” was prosecuted
for obscenity, “polluting young people's minds"[3],
because of brothel scenes, references to “intimacy
between members of the male sex"[4] (really the sexual
assault(s) of a child), and its overall extremely grim
atmosphere.
The novel is now in fact largely forgotten, but it was one
of the very first bitter denunciations of child labor in
ships, and it didn't shy away from depicting issues such
as sexual abuse, murder and systemic violence against
children.
Its protagonist, Arthur Fearon is a thirteen year old who
throughout his short life only experiences abuse.
He is forced to leave school by his physically abusive
parents who want to make him “earn his bread” like they
did at his age, by doing a job who isn't just humiliating
but also very dangerous.
He then escapes from home and winds up on a ship were
he experiences all sorts of violences from the men.
He dies at the end of the novel after contracting syphilis
and being smothered by the captain who wants to “spare
him the pain".
Arthur Fearon attributes the abuses he experiences to
the fact that he is a boy, hence the title. We read: “Wish I
had been born a man right away".
Unsurprisingly, Arthur's character still doesn’t receive
much sympathy from the few readers of this novel[5].
The book, by being heavily censored and having had a
complex editorial history, and also by being so honest,
did not reach many people and did not change the
broader view of boys who go to work in ships alongside
adults.
When Captains Courageous (1937) came out, it was
immediately extremely successful. Not only it was the
adaptation of an extremely famous children's novel (who
has not much to do with it), but it was directed by Victor
Fleming and featured names such as Spencer Tracy and
the beloved Freddie Bartholomew, who is one of the
many eroticized “androgynous” children who featured
and still feature in media, as identified by Kincaid, but as
we read in “She's So Fine": “Kincaid, particularly with
Buster Brown but also with boy stars like Freddie
Bartholomew, Ricky Schroeder and Macaulay Culkin,
argues for their androgyny, but this is a culturally
tenuous line: androgyny is not defined by a presence of
traits of both genders as it is by a lack of masculinity".[6].
The pedophilic references in the movie should not
surprise anyone, as they weren’t rare in 30s movies who
featured children, think of the more studied in this sense
performances of Shirley Temple. Being a child star at the
time was identified as an oppressive role, devoted to
satisfying the emotional needs of adults and experiencing
objectification by audiences and often financial abuse by
ones parents[7].
Spencer Tracy won an Oscar for his performance in the
movie, and it is considered one of the most important
performances of Bartholomew’s career.
It also had an important role in popular culture, being
referenced in Catcher In The Rye (1951)[8], and receiving
a sexualized parody in Elliot's “Cabin Boy" (1994)[9].
Still in 2021 there are people who recount the
impression the movie made on them when they were
children. Some less normative than others. In “Flash
Flaherty: Tales From A Film Seminar", published in 2021
we read: “I'd been initiated by German television into the
cinema's all consuming erotic force with a tale of
forbidden desire on the ocean, the man-boy romance
Captains Courageous (1937), which turned Spencer Tracy
into my first love"[10]. Captains Courageous was also
called a “man-boy romance" by a 2013 reviewer[11].
We do not see the coded “love story" mentioned often in
most reviews, but some reviewers note that some parts
are “creepy", notably the part where Harvey gets upset
at Manuel telling him he wants to go with girls[12].
The movie also ended up in the section devoted to
movies on the website “BoyLinks", which is part of the
online community devoted to men who have sexual and
romantic attractions to boys[13]. It has an
overwhelmingly positive rating on “BoyActors", a site
mainly used by so called “BoyLovers"[14], but it has an
overwhelmingly positive rating on most platforms
including IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes[15].
The movie is a widely regarded as a classic, but there are
almost no academic studies that center it. The fact that
the subject of pedophilia but also that of the oppression
of children would inevitably come up is probably
responsible for this.
I hope this article, which is not academic, will inspire
some scholars to write about it.
Notes:
1. https://letterboxd.com/film/captains-courageous/, https://www.amazon.com/Captains-Courageous-Louis-D-
Lighton/dp/B000BYA4II.

2. Dennis, J.P. (2010): “I Want My Boy Back!”:

Substitute Sons and Damsels In Distress. Thymos,
Journal Of Boyhood Studies, 4(1), 24-38.
3. http://moviecritic2000.blogspot.com/2017/04/capta
ins-courageous.html?m=1
4. http://nixpixdvdmoviereviewsandmore.blogspot.co
m/2020/08/captains-courageous-mgm-1937-
warner.html?m=1
Beyond Watching Captains Courageous (1937):
1. Linneae Gibbs, James Hanley: A Biography,
Vancouver, Canada: William Hoffer, 1980, pp. 19-20.
2. Stokes, p.34.
3. Gibbs, pp.25-26.
4. Fordham, p.140.
5. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1499880.
Boy
6. “She's so fine”: Reflections of Whiteness, Femininity,
Adolescence and Class in 1960s music" Ed.Laurie
Stras, Burlington, VT: Ashgate: 2010.
7. “How much do you love me?” The Child's
Obligations To The Adult In 1930s Hollywood",
Brown, Noel. Entertaining Children, 2014, pp.93-
110.
8. J.D Salinger, Catcher In The Rye, 1951.
9. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribu
ne.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-01-10-9401100009-
story,amp.html
10. “Flash Flaherty: Tales From A Film Seminar", Ed.
Scott MacDonald and Patricia R. Zimmerman,
Indiana University Press 2021.
11. http://wwwirajoelcinemagebooks.blogspot.com
/2013/02/captains-courageous-1937.html?m=1
12. https://letterboxd.com/film/captains-
courageous/,
http://attackofthesailingmovies.blogspot.com/2011
/08/captains-courageous.html?m=1.
13. https://www.boylinks.org/movies_intergenerati
onal.html
14. https://www.boyactors.org.uk/movie.php?ref=8
07
15. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0028691/,
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003531-
captains_courageous.