Tonight's movie was "Man's Castle"(1933), a Depression Era tale starring Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young as a down-on-their-luck couple living in a shantytown in New York City. They meet on a park bench. Tracy is feeding popcorn to the pigeons, Loretta eyes them with envy - she hasn't eaten in two days. He's gruff at first, but offers to take her to dinner at a nice restaurant. He appears to be loaded, decked out in a three piece suit, but when it comes time to pay the bill, he hasn't got a dime. He's as broke as she is. They have to pull a variation on the old "dine and dash" scheme, and - once outside the restaurant - they're ready to go their separate ways. But Spencer can see that Loretta (only 20 years old here and waiflike) has nowhere to stay. So he brings her back to his homeless camp, which in this case is an acre sized lot of small shacks, built of scrap and tar paper.
Soon, they are a couple, and Loretta is happy with her newfound domestication. She loves keeping house, doesn't care that it's a hovel, and enjoys cooking stew for Spencer over a makeshift stove.
Tracy, however, abhors the very thought of being tied down. He's a vagabond who's used to living on the edge, riding trains and never staying in any city for more than thirty days. He does aspire to respectability, however, and vows to buy Loretta a real stove one day. She's devoted to Spencer, and in his own way he loves her too, but he's never had responsibility before and he's ill at ease in their relationship.
Then the news comes that she's pregnant. Loretta is delighted. Family is what she's always wanted after being alone most of her life. But for Spencer Tracy, the proposition of a child is cause for him to flee. Still, he wants to do the right thing by this young lady with whom he's become attached, so he scrapes up the cash for a civil ceremony. Now they are officially married, and Tracy makes his plans to escape. But he will not leave her without funds to raise their child, so without her knowledge, he decides to rob the safe inside a toy factory where the couple's surly neighbor has a job.
This guy, who lives in the shack next door, is a true loser who has designs on Loretta when Spencer isn't home. He has his own plan : to assist in the robbery, then frame Spencer Tracy. Once Spencer is in prison, he will coerce Loretta Young into living with him. He sees her as naive and helpless.
The movie is not about the struggle for money, though. It's more concerned with the different ways the characters react to their lot in life. In Young's case, the shantytown is a step up from life on the street. And her relationship with Tracy (now a marriage in name only) is a quantum leap for an orphan girl without relatives. So she's perfectly happy. But for Tracy, the marriage is a death sentence, one he must break free from. But his conscience dictates he must do so with honor, because he's gone "all in" with this girl he met by chance, and he can't leave her hanging, especially since she's carrying his child.
"Man's Castle" was a lot better than I expected, being that it was an early talkie and had the transitional production qualities that marked the period between the Silent era and the onset of Golden Age Hollywood. Much of it's success can be attributed to the acting, but credit must also go to director Frank Borzage, one of the great craftsmen of classical Hollywood. His talent takes the film out of pre-code simplicity and gives it some depth, despite the budget.
I give it Two Big Thumbs Up, but even beyond that, it's worth watching just to see the depiction of life in a shantytown in the 1930s. The only other film I'd seen this in was (of all movies) John Waters' "Desperate Living"(1977). And at 17, I thought it was an absurdist fantasy, because that's how Waters portrayed the lifestyle of his characters. What I didn't know - but Waters obviously did - was that shantytowns once existed in America, just like they remain in existence in countries like Brazil to this day. Yet as bad as they look in "Man's Castle", they are better than what homeless people have now, living in cardboard boxes on concrete. And the movie does show the other side of the argument, via Spencer Tracy, that there are some folks who cannot adapt to society, and can only find freedom in the margins. You can't force people to conform, in other words, even by offering them a roof over their head. In Tracy's case, that's the last thing he wants. ////
Well, that's all I know for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be writing from home, off work for the next two weeks.
Stay safe and stay healthy, and I'll see you in the morning. Tons and tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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