Everyone who has read the book "Captains Courageous" has always remembered it; the filming of Kipling's sea masterpiece had its first showing last night at the Colonial Theatre before an enthusiastic audience that is likely never to forget it.

Without doubt "Captains Courageous" is the greatest sea film that Holly wood has ever produced; from a nautical approach it is the first great one. People who shivered when they saw the sea parts of "Captain Blood" or "Mutiny on the Bounty" mishandled can go to the Colonial this week assured that their most exacting requirements for accuracy on shipboard will be fulfilled.

There are no schooners logging eight knots over a placid sea with sails shaking; there are no sails like those of the "Bounty," made of shirt-like consistency. This is a real picture of real ships on real seas. Storms are not filmed in a bath tub with models, and everything is so realistic that you can almost smell the fish and feel the moist salt spray.

It is a grand return to the screen for Spencer Tracy, who makes Manuel a far greater figure than he was in the book, while Freddy Bartholomew as Harvey is far above his "Lloyds of London' performance. Between them they have created the most deeply emotional characters of the year. There is almost no one in the theatre who isn't moved by the death of Manuel, or by the service in Gloucester for those lost at sea.

The action follows the book very closely; there is a longer introduction before you actually get out on the water, for it takes Hollywood longer than it took Kipling to create the character of rich, spoiled Harvey; but from then on it is all Kipling and the characters portray the gripping tale with the greatest acting you are likely to see on the screen this year--Harvey, Manuel, Captain Disko (Lionel Barrymore), Long Jack. Perhaps the only sour note is the millionaire, Harvey's soupy father, played by Melvyn Douglas; it is doubtful if he is just what Kipling meant him to be.

But above everything else it is a picture of the sea, of the fishermen who derive their livelihood from it and go down to their death in it. It is the picture of what the sea can do to a person, portrayed in the remarkable transformation of Harvey Cheyne. It tells of life as it really is in a way that has never been told before.

No one, either seaman or landlubber, can fail to get a thrill out of those shots of the schooner plowing through the seas, scuppers awash; or fail to get a sense of peace from seeing the vessel ghosting through a Grand Banks fog. At last Hollywood has realized the possibilities of filming the sea accurately and dramatically, and it will now stand besides the photography of "Man of Aran." Do not fail to see this picture.