What a wonderful cast – and crew – assembled by MGM and given the full Victor Fleming treatment to turn out the first film version of Rudyard Kipling's tale. Although it got altered by Hollywood it was all put over rather well: a lesson in life for a young boy involving some simple home truths. Kipling had died the year before it was made and probably wouldn't have approved of the film at all but I'm glad it turned out as it did, not perfect but a truly memorable motion picture. Perhaps sadly, I've never even been slightly interested in watching any of the probably more technically advanced remakes which Who Knows? may even have been more faithful to the story.
Spoilt little rich boy Harvey played by Freddie Bartholomew on board a ship owned by busy business daddy Melvyn Douglas falls overboard to be rescued by rough simple fisherman Manuel played by Spencer Tracy. And so begins a life for him on board a radio-less fishing schooner surrounded by rough honest hard-working men including John Carradine and Mickey Rooney under Captain Lionel Barrymore. It all centres on Bartholomew and his attitude - over time from being a Jonah he becomes one of the crew and matures. It's wonderfully simple and wonderfully done: the first twenty minutes building it all up are a little bland but essential to the real story beginning from the catching of the "Little Fish". One could also argue that the last five minutes drag a little – the overwhelming sentimentality and sorrow have already peaked and the film almost gets mawkish in its apparent aimlessness at the end. Out of so many memorable scenes the money shot for me is when Harvey and Manuel are alone and Harvey tearfully tells him he wants to be with him and not go back home, both of them acting their hearts out and after wonderful performances throughout the film. If you're dry-eyed by the end you're made of sterner stuff than me.
Everyone in this film learns lessons, some easier or more obvious than others – I first saw this at about ten years old and the first lesson I learnt was to never become a fisherman. But also that MGM in 1937 was in the middle of a golden age of movies and this was one of their best productions; I would add as they left us so many beautiful movie memories I bear in mind Manuel's exhortation Don't Cry.
Spoilt little rich boy Harvey played by Freddie Bartholomew on board a ship owned by busy business daddy Melvyn Douglas falls overboard to be rescued by rough simple fisherman Manuel played by Spencer Tracy. And so begins a life for him on board a radio-less fishing schooner surrounded by rough honest hard-working men including John Carradine and Mickey Rooney under Captain Lionel Barrymore. It all centres on Bartholomew and his attitude - over time from being a Jonah he becomes one of the crew and matures. It's wonderfully simple and wonderfully done: the first twenty minutes building it all up are a little bland but essential to the real story beginning from the catching of the "Little Fish". One could also argue that the last five minutes drag a little – the overwhelming sentimentality and sorrow have already peaked and the film almost gets mawkish in its apparent aimlessness at the end. Out of so many memorable scenes the money shot for me is when Harvey and Manuel are alone and Harvey tearfully tells him he wants to be with him and not go back home, both of them acting their hearts out and after wonderful performances throughout the film. If you're dry-eyed by the end you're made of sterner stuff than me.
Everyone in this film learns lessons, some easier or more obvious than others – I first saw this at about ten years old and the first lesson I learnt was to never become a fisherman. But also that MGM in 1937 was in the middle of a golden age of movies and this was one of their best productions; I would add as they left us so many beautiful movie memories I bear in mind Manuel's exhortation Don't Cry.