Captains Courageous

Captains Courageous (1937) is a classic Hollywood adventure you can watch online on iFILM. Based on Rudyard Kipling's 1897 novel, it was directed by Victor Fleming — the same filmmaker who turned around Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz within the next two years.

Harvey (Freddie Bartholomew), the spoiled son of a wealthy American, goes overboard from a transatlantic liner and gets hauled aboard a fishing schooner working the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. No one buys his story. The captain puts him to work until they reach Gloucester, Massachusetts. The education Harvey gets from Manuel — Spencer Tracy — has nothing to do with school: three months of weather, hard labor, and what it actually costs to keep your word.

Tracy picked up the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role — the first of back-to-back Oscar wins, a distinction only a handful of actors have ever held. Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas, and a young Mickey Rooney round out the cast. Straightforward storytelling about how a person gets made. Watch Captains Courageous (1937) on iFILM.