Tortilla Flat (1942)

That was an excellent one.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely brilliant

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie was made during the U.S. entry in WWII. Maybe that is why it leaves out the deaths that occur in the actual story of Steinbeck. The people in charge perhaps had the directive to make a light inspiring movie ("no heavy stuff, y'hear?"). I don't think it was in the spirit of the novel AT ALL. My low rating is based on the movie's lack of faithfulness to the novel AND the casting of Spencer Tracy in the role of Pilon. It was just not a good fit. Even if I could ignore the messing with Steinbeck's story, I could not watch Tracy's performance with any ease. It pretty much ruined the movie for me despite what I thought were pretty good performances by everyone else.

There is no denying that the man who gave us THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN, and EAST OF EDEN is a major literary figure - one of the handful of American literary figures to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. But John Steinbeck was also a man of his time and some of his time is hard to swallow. This is particularly when dealing with his novels and stories dealing with Latin-Americans in California. A man raised in the early 20th Century, his views of Latinos is rather heavily into stereotypes. That he could develop character despite the stereotypes was a sign of his abilities as a fine writer...but those stereotypes remain as a stigma today.In TORTILLA FLAT Steinbeck looks at life among a set of Latinos in Salinas, California. The central figure is Pilon (Spencer Tracy) who is a happy - go - lucky type, without any interest in life but what pleasure (food, partying, girls, booze) he can get out of it. But he does not like to work. Nor do his pals Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), Tito (Sheldon Leonard), Jose (John Qualen), and Daniel (John Garfield). But then Daniel learns his uncle died and left him two houses. He suddenly changes a little (he is a property owner) but that is soon dented when Pilon reminds him they are pals and he owes them a share of his good fortune. Somewhat unsettled by this, he does agree to letting the four freeloaders use the other house. The wisdom of this action is shown when they gradually let the nice little house go to ruin, ending with them accidentally burning it down (Pilon just smiles and shrugs his shoulders at this).Meanwhile Daniel meets Dolores Ramirez (Hedy Lamarr), a young woman who works in the local fish cannery. Daniel starts changing his whole views on life by his desire to woo Dolores - she feels her husband has to be a hard working man to win her respect. But Pilon and the others resent this hold Dolores has on Daniel. Pilon in particular tries to break up the love affair, but only manages to make his friendship with Daniel get strained. Daniel now has a job too at the cannery, but the others are still gainfully unemployed. Pilon decides that he and the others can rob "the Pirate" (Frank Morgan) a lonely eccentric. The best scenes in the film deal with Morgan, who turns out to be a touching old man who loves his pets and is saving his money for a religious offering for them. I won't go into the rest of the plot (which shows that Pilon can be a real friend too when he wants to be). Again it is well acted, although Tracy is reusing his "Spanish" accent that he used as Manuel in CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS, and would use again in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. Lamarr and Garfield actually display some chemistry together to heat up their scenes. Garfield too is slightly reusing a previous accent - his "Porfirio Diaz" voice in JUAREZ toned down a little. Actually if it wasn't for the performances (particularly Morgan's) the film would only have the character development shown by Tracy and Garfield. But the weakness of the stereotypes makes this film a difficult one to swallow. So I can only give it a "7" out of "10".

"Tortilla Flat" is a good movie. In some ways, it reminds me of "Juarez," another film in which John Garfield plays a Latino. The similarity is that both are good films that have contained within them really terrific scenes. I guess you could say that in these films, the parts are in some ways greater than the whole.For me, the best scenes in "Tortilla Flat" revolve around Frank Morgan, who plays a sort of tramp (homeless man) who goes around with a bunch of dogs. Like Mr. Morgan, one of the dogs seems to have appeared in "The Wizard of Oz" -- yes, I think Toto is in "Tortilla Flat." Not surprising, since both films were directed by Victor Fleming.But the most extraordinary scene is that in which Frank Morgan has gathered his five dogs, in the midst of the majestic Redwood Forest, and relates to the dogs the story of St. Francis. As he is telling the story, the dogs actually have a vision! As the vision hovers, and the dogs react, Morgan averts his eyes. When the vision passes, Morgan shouts to the dogs: "Did you see him? Did you see him? It was St. Francis! What good boys you must be to see St. Francis!"I know of few other films that depict pure religious experience so effectively. It raises this good film onto another level.

Okay yes, Spencer Tracy does NOT look like a Paisano, but his performance in this movie is pretty cool and worth noting. I absolutely loved the book and Spencer Tracy's portrayal of Pilon went above and beyond what I expected the character to turn out like on screen. Frank Morgan was wonderful too. The scenes with the songs are particularly charming.The story is about homeless men who live life one day at a time. Their biggest concern of each day is how they're going to acquire wine. Their friend Danny inherits two houses and Pilon is concerned that this newfound wealth is affecting their friendship.Along the way they bring in more roommates including the wonderful Pirate character and the guys get into some shenanigans involving what else? Money, women and wine.I also very much adored the simplicity of Victor Fleming's direction. He made a lot of beautiful shots, especially of the Pirate's adorable dogs!