Barnacle Bill (1941 film)
| Barnacle Bill | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Richard Thorpe |
| Produced by | Milton H. Bren |
| Written by |
Jack Jevne Hugo Butler |
| Story by | Jack Jevne |
| Starring |
Wallace Beery Marjorie Main |
| Music by |
Bronisław Kaper Lennie Hayton |
| Cinematography | Clyde De Vinna |
| Edited by | Frank Hull |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
|
Release date
|
April 7, 1941 |
|
Running time
|
90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Barnacle Bill is a 1941 feature film starring Wallace Beery. The screen comedy was directed by Richard Thorpe. Barnacle Bill was the second of seven MGM films pairing Beery and character actress Marjorie Main.
Lazy fisherman Bill Johansen (Wallace Beery) docks his small (and sinking) fishing boat in San Pedro harbor, aggravating ship chandler Pop Cavendish (Donald Meek) and Pop's spinster daughter Marge (Marjorie Main), who would like to marry Bill even though he has welched on paying his debts for years. Pop tries to have Bill's boat attached, but cannot because Bill has craftily listed the boat's ownership in the name of his daughter Virginia, whom he has not seen since she was a baby. Meanwhile, reefer ship-owner John Kelly (Barton MacLane) has a monopoly and intimidates local fishermen into accepting less than market value for their fish. Marge tells Bill he is just the man to stand up to Kelly, but Bill would rather fish for swordfish, which bring a higher price (and thus require less work to earn beer money) with his partner, Pico (Leo Carrillo). His daughter Virginia (Virginia Weidler), now twelve, is brought to meet Bill by her Aunt Letty (Sara Haden) and asks to stay with him, even though Letty thinks he is an unfit father. Bill likes Virginia, but doesn't want the responsibility of raising a child, so he convinces Marge to let her live ashore with her.
Virginia and Marge decide to try to reform Bill. Bill attends church with them, but later shows up drunk for supper. Virginia tells Bill about the death of "Gramps," her maternal grandfather, who was a well-known Gloucester fishing schooner captain. Bill tells her his dream is to captain the We're Here, a Gloucester schooner docked in San Pedro, and Virginia gives him Gramps' captain's telescope as a symbol of the dream. To make it come true, Bill and Pico get a job on a tuna boat and return to find that Virginia and Marge have rehabilitated his rundown boat in the month he has been gone. When Bill collects his pay, he gets much less than expected and suspects that Kelly is cheating the fisherman by under-weighing the catch. Bill confronts one of Kelly's henchmen and cajoles a bribe to keep his "big mouth" shut. Bill is about to accept the money when he sees Virginia bringing the other cheated fishermen to watch him stand up to Kelly. To save face, Bill refuses the bribe and throws the henchman into the harbor. Virginia takes his wages for safekeeping, but Bill gets drunk anyway to celebrate his new status as a hero, and Kelly scuttles his boat after he passes out.
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