Classic Yachts on the big Screen?
SANTANDER OF WRIGHT, the true star of The Talented Mr Ripley.
Last week we wrote an article about
the Classic Boat awards. Seth Salzmann the skipper of the beautiful black Alden Schooner WHEN AND IF was a contributor and I mentioned how
this incredible vessel appeared in
the award-winning TV series
“The Marvellous Mrs Maisel”.
This led me to thinking what other Classic Yachts have made an appearance in main stream productions.
Daniel Craig’s (James Bond’s) Spirit Yacht in the latest version of Casino Royale doesn’t really count, when you see her underwater profile. She’s really just a Beneteau with elegant topsides.
Perhaps you too have asked yourself, while watching Anthony Minghella’s sumptuously filmed treatment of Patricia Highsmith’s psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley : What was that beautiful yacht? Being the current custodian of a Philip Rhodes design, I was delighted to see SANTANDER OF WIGHT in elegant close up. In my eyes she’s pretty much the star of the film. In my humble opinion, Rhodes is the most under rated designer of the 20th Century, so a little bit of glamour coming his way is well overdue!
And then there is Elvis Presley’s 1962 film “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Surely one of the films of which he he would have been least proud, even before the days when we are collectively, quite rightly, attempting to redress centuries of gender imbalance. However the film stars a rather good looking classic yacht!
But if you are looking for some thing a little more existential perhaps head to Buster Keaton’s wonderful 1924 short film “The Boat”. Produced three years before Keaton’s famous The Navigator, The Boat is a delightful short film about what not to do at sea. Buster builds his own boat in his garage and destroys his house as he tows it to the dock. The boat’s name, Damfino, is a triumphant lob over the censors’ radar in those, er, pre-radar days.
It is variously a real boat, stage construction and model, about which we suspend disbelief as Buster gloriously plays the nascent weekender afloat. With stunts from him being knocked overboard by his patent mast-lowering system, to studio footage of the boat being rolled, and finally the dark scenes of a captain going down with his ship (until he surfaces under his hat), this is both an hilarious and at times salutary film with moments that can still make you laugh out loud on the umpteenth viewing. The trusting shipmate wife is Sybil Seeley but his two sons are uncredited. Apparently, James Mason, another great actor of sea films, found this film when he bought Buster’s house in the 1950s – saving the old print for posterity.
So here it is, SWS’s TOP 5 ALL TIME CLASSIC MOMENTS AFLOAT
WHEN AND IF, THE MARVELLOUS MRS MAISEL
THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, SANTANDER OF WRIGHT
GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS, BOAT??
THE BOAT, DAMIFINO
????????? (INSERT IDEAS FROM READERS)
SO If you have a film featuring a wooden boat that you are particularly fond of then let us know. Preference given to craft of the Southern Hemisphere. It’s all up for debate and your input.
//
The Team at SWS