''Tugboat Annie'' is a 1933 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

film directed by

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Bros., Warner Brothers studios, ...

, 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 Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

. 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. ''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 film. Howden's son Richard Howden is seen rolling rope during the credits. Filmed in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, 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.

Plot

Cast

Reception

Critical response

Leonard Maltin called it a "rambling, episodic comedy drama; inimitable stars far outclass their wobbly material." Leslie Halliwell gave it two of four stars: "Hilarious and well-loved comedy vehicle for two great stars of the period."

Box Office

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 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

, 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 Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-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 ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Sodor (fictional island), Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by Wi ...

'' book '' The Twin Engines'', Gordon the Big Engine references Tugboat Annie when he teases Donald and Douglas about their deep-toned whistles. * In the original 1967 version of '' The Producers'', after Roger De Bris mentions as to why he's wearing a dress, due to him going to the choreographer ball, he claims that he looks more like the character when he is supposed to be "The Grand Dutchess Anastasia". * The character is mentioned in the AA " Big Book" in the personal story of Dr. Bob, one of the co-founders of

Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global, peer-led Mutual aid, mutual-aid fellowship focused on an abstinence-based recovery model from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined twelve-step program. AA's Twelve Traditions, besides emphasizing anon ...

. * 1990s indie rock band Tugboat Annie was named for the character.

References

External links

* * * {{Irving Thalberg 1933 films American black-and-white films 1933 comedy-drama films Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy 1930s English-language films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Tugboats in fiction Films produced by Irving Thalberg Seafaring films American comedy-drama films 1930s American films English-language comedy-drama films