1937, Dir Victor Fleming, B&W, MGM, DVD, U, 112mins
It’s not just the star-studded cast that brings this movie to life – much of the footage takes place aboard real working Grand Banks schooners of the American north east fishery which gives it superlative reality. Based on Rudyard Kipling’s excellent novel of the same name it’s a story of rich brat Freddie Bartholomew (Harvey Cheyne) who, in the only unlikely moment of the film, falls overside a steamer bound for Europe and is picked up by a Portuguese doryman Manuel (Spencer Tracy who won the Oscar for this role). Forced to adapt to the tough world of catching cod and halibut in a longlining schooner that will be at sea for months, Freddie finds himself as a fish out of water as his monied background carries no weight with captain Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore).
But he also has two father figures, one loving, one hard, in the brilliantly portrayed shapes of Manuel and Disko and the film becomes a coming-of-age classic as he learns self-reliance and discipline. But the brilliant reality of this adventure is in the sailing detail, from actors expertly gutting cod to their wet woollen gloves hanging in the fo’c’s’le to dry. The racing schooners sailing full and by are a treat to behold – the moreso for knowing it’s for real. DMH
In early 2019 we found a link: HERE Or you can be teased with the Trailer: