Tugboat Annie

Tugboat Annie is a 1933 American Pre-Code film 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.

Contents

• Seattle s lake union in 1933 tugboat annie opening title sequence
• Frankie darro in tugboat annie 1933
• Cast
• Reception
• Sequels
• References

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 based on the life of Thea Foss of Tacoma, Washington. 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. The movie was written by Norman Reilly Raine and Zelda Sears, and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Capt. Clarance Howden piloted the boat which was owned by Foss Tug And Barge of Tacoma. His son Richard Howden is seen rolling rope during the credits.

The tugboat used for the film is called the Arthur Foss. It is being preserved and restored in South Lake Union in Seattle next to the Museum of History and Industry. It is the oldest tugboat in the U.S.

Cast

Marie Dressler as Annie Brennan

Wallace Beery as Terry Brennan

Robert Young as Alec Brennan

Maureen O'Sullivan as Pat Severn

Willard Robertson as Red Severn

Tammany Young as Shif'less

Frankie Darro as Alec, as a Child

Jack Pennick as Pete

Paul Hurst as Sam

Reception

The film made a profit of $1.1 million.

Sequels

A sequel called Tugboat Annie Sails Again was released in 1940, starring Marjorie Rambeau, Alan Hale, Jane Wyman, and Ronald Reagan, and another called Captain Tugboat Annie in 1945 starring Jane Darwell and Edgar Kennedy.

A Canadian-filmed television series appeared in 1957, The Adventures of Tugboat Annie, starring Minerva Urecal.