Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1933
Tugboat Annie
Buy Tugboat Annie now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Tugboat Annie' is a 1933 American pre-Code film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, written by Norman Reilly Raine and Zelda Sears, and starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery as a comically quarrelsome middle-aged couple who operate a tugboat. Dressler and Beery were MGM's most popular screen team at that time, having recently made the bittersweet 'Min and Bill' (1930) together, for which Dressler won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
The boisterous Tugboat Annie character first appeared in a series of stories in the 'Saturday Evening Post' written by the author Norman Reilly Raine which were supposedly based on the life of Thea Foss of Tacoma, Washington.[http://www.everythingnorwegian.everythingscandinavian.com/miscellaneous/tugboatannie.html 'Tugboat Annie'] , everythingnorwegian.everythingscandinavian.com; accessed August 4, 2015. There is also a theory that her character is loosely based on Kate A. Sutton, secretary and dispatcher for the Providence Steamboat Company during the 1920s.[http://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/timeline/index.htm 'Tugboat Annie'], marinersmuseum.org; accessed August 4, 2015.
'Tugboat Annie' also features Robert Young and Maureen O'Sullivan as the requisite pair of young lovers. Captain Clarence Howden piloted Annie's tugboat "'Narcissus'" (real name 'Wallowa'), which was owned by Foss Tug and Barge of Tacoma and had been leased to MGM for the movie. Howden's son Richard Howden is seen rolling rope during the credits.
Filmed in Seattle, Washington, 'Tugboat Annie' used local residents as extras, including then-mayor John F. Dore. The tugboat used in the film, renamed 'Arthur Foss' in 1934, is the oldest wooden tugboat afloat in the world and remains preserved by Northwest Seaport in Seattle.
Cast
Reception
The film earned $1,917,000 in rentals in the United States and Canada and $655,000 overseas for a total of $2,572,000
and made a profit of $1.1 million.Scott Eyman, 'Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer', Robson, 2005 p 191
Sequels
A sequel called 'Tugboat Annie Sails Again' was released in 1940, starring Marjorie Rambeau, Alan Hale, Jane Wyman, and Ronald Reagan, and another called 'Captain Tugboat Annie' in 1945 starring Jane Darwell and Edgar Kennedy. Many of the publicity shots for the former were taken aboard the Arthur Foss, which had starred as Annie's "Narcissus" in the original film.
A Canadian-filmed television series appeared in 1957, 'The Adventures of Tugboat Annie', starring Minerva Urecal ran for 39 half-hour episodes.
References in other media
* In 'The Railway Series' book, 'The Twin Engines', Gordon the Big Engine references Tugboat Annie when he teases Donald and Douglas about their deep-toned whistles.
* Mentioned in the AA "Big Book" in the personal story of Dr. Bob, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
* 1990s indie rock band Tugboat Annie was named for the character.
References
Buy Tugboat Annie now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1933