Tortilla Flat - 1942

Tortilla Flat is a movie based on the book of the same name by John Steinbeck.  It was directed by Victor Fleming and stars Spencer Tracy as Pilon, Heddy Lamarr as Dolores "Sweets" Ramirez,  John Garfield as Danny Alvarez, Frank Morgan as The Pirate, Connie Gilchrist as Mrs. Torelli, Harry Burns as Torelli, and Henry O'Neil as Father Ramon.

Tortilla Flat is about a bunch of lazy guys who lay around all day and drink Torelli's wine.  The leader of this group is Pilon.  One of his friends is Danny Alvarez who has most recently pawned his guitar so the group could buy more wine.  Danny is in jail when a lawyer appears out of the blue looking for him.  It turns out that a relative of Danny's has died and has left him two houses.  Pilon and his lazy band precede to use this information to their benefit and quickly move in with him.

Through this process Danny courts Dolores Ramirez despite Pilon doing his best to ruin the relationship.  When Danny begins to work with the hope of buying a fishing boat one day, Pilon mocks him.  During this time frame The Pirate is introduced.  He tries to sell the group wood.  The  Pirate is a hermit who lives in a shack with his many dogs.  Legend has it that he has buried all of his money from selling the wood in the woods somewhere and Pilon and his group conspire to steal it.

Pilon finds out that the money has been saved to buy a candlestick for St Francis so he rethinks stealing the money.  Eventually Danny is hurt in a fight that began because of Dolores and he is gravely hurt.  Pilon changes his ways and prays for his friend.  In the end his friend recovers and marries Ramirez.

I will discuss the nomination first and then go on to discuss what I thought about this movie.  Frank Morgan was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the hermit known as The Pirate.  Morgan is probably best known for his role as the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.  This was his second nomination, he was given a nomination for Best Actor 8 years prior for his role in The Affairs of Cellini.  The other nominees for Best Supporting Actor this year were.

• William Bendix as Smacksie Randall in Wake Island
• Van Heflin as Jeff Hartnett in Johnny Eager
• Walter Huston as Jerry Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy
• Henry Travers as Mr. Ballard in Mrs. Minniver

If you have read my blog before, and the stats tell me that you haven't read my blog, but nobody is reading it, you will know that Van Heflin won for his role in Johnny Eager.  I also mentioned in that blog that he was by far the most deserving of the award.  I still have not seen Wake Island or Yankee Doodle Dandy, so maybe my opinion will change after I view those two films, but until then I still think I called it right, and so did the Academy.

Morgan was superb in his role as the quirky and hermit like Pirate.  I certainly would not say that the nomination was not deserved.  Clearly he shone in the film, but I think it was more from the fact that his character was so different from the others.  Although poor, he did not think that sitting around drinking wine all day was the right thing to do.  Despite being mocked by the lazy he went about his ways undeterred.  It was refreshing to see that he didn't fall into that group but despite his naivete he ultimately was not taken advantage of by Pilon like so many others had been.

As far as the movie goes, I did not like it very much.  I came to loathe Pilon and everything about him.  His continuous usury and ability to take advantage of everyone he came into contact with combined with his ability to deflect any blame for misfortunes to anyone other than himself made him a vile person in my eyes.  When one of the two houses that Danny inherited burnt down, mainly on account of Pilon he quickly managed to talk his way out of it.  This made me despise him even more.

I realize that this is a story and these types of feelings about the characters are likely what the author hoped to achieve.  While that may be and should not diminish Spencer Tracy's role, it certainly diminished my enjoyment of the movie.  Frankly I am shocked that Tracy did not garner a Best Actor nomination for his role in the movie.  I have only seen one of the five movies that offered up a Best Actor nomination.  That was Mrs. Minniver and I think Tracy's performance was superior to Walter Pidgeon's in Minniver.

Maybe a "true" reviewer of film can separate his distaste for a character and the story from the fact that it was a really good film, but I can't.  As I have said numerous times a true reviewer I am not.  Pilon and his usury made me annoyed through a good portion of the film.  I find it difficult to enjoy a movie when I am annoyed.  This is the main reason I give this film 2.5 stars out of 5.