Karl Malden, who passed away this week at the age of 97, is well-known for many roles, from his Oscar-winning performance opposite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) to the cop he played opposite Michael Douglas on the TV show The Streets of San Francisco (1972-1977). But the first movies of his that I remember seeing as I was growing up were, appropriately enough, movies in which he co-starred with children.
One of those movies was Captains Courageous (1977), an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling story about a spoiled teenaged boy who falls overboard and learns a thing or two about maturity and growing up when he is picked up by a "crusty old sea captain" (as the IMDb puts it) played by Malden. I haven't seen this film in decades, but to this day, I'm pretty sure I can remember how Malden's character – named Disko Troop, of all things, which makes him sound like a refugee from the Village People – reluctantly takes the boy under his wing and barks the words, "Right hand, starboard! ...
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