Lewis Milestone accepted lucrative deal to film a John Gilbert vehicle and left United Artists for Harry Cohn’s Columbia Pictures.
The Captain Hates the Sea was conceived and then recognized by critics as a spoof of the 1932 star-studded anthology, Grand Hotel, which showcased Hollywood’s screen legends Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore.
Milestone’s largely improvised film featured an ensemble of Columbia’s character actors, including Victor McLaglen and The Three Stooges.
Described by critic George Millichap as “uneven, disconnected, rambling piece,” the cost overruns on The Captain Hates the Sea–complicated by heavy drinking by cast members–soured relations between Milestone and Cohen.
The movie is notable as Gilbert’s career’s final feature.
Milestone next embarked on two films for Paramount, the only musicals of his career, though both were undistinguished in execution: Paris in Spring (1935) and Anything Goes (1936).
Paris in Spring (1935) and Anything Goes (1936):
Milestone was assigned Paris in Spring, a romantic musical farce. Leading man Tullio Carminati had just completed the operetta-like One Night of Love (1934) with Grace Moore at Columbia studios. Paramount paired their own Mary Ellis with Carminati, and it was Milestone’s task to make a picture rivaling the Columbia success.
Aside from a credible replica of Paris created by art directors Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté, Milestone’s camera work failed to overcome the tale’s flatness.
Anything Goes, a musical starring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman and adapted from his 1934 Cole Porter Broadway musical, benefited from some memorable numbers, including “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top”, and the title song. Milestone’s work showed little enthusiasm for the genre.
