Tortilla Flat (film)
Encyclopedia
Tortilla Flat is a 1942 film with Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

, Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...

, John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

, Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

, Akim Tamiroff
Akim Tamiroff
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...

, and Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...

 based on the novel
Tortilla Flat
Tortilla Flat is an early John Steinbeck novel set in Monterey, California. The novel was the author's first clear critical and commercial success....

 by John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

. It was directed by Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming
Victor Lonzo Fleming was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz , and Gone with the Wind , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.-Life and career:Fleming was born in La Canada, California, the son of Elizabeth Evaleen ...

.

Plot

Danny (John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

) inherits two houses, so Pilon (Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

) and his poor, idle friends move in. One of them, Pirate, (Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

) is saving money which Pilon endeavors to steal, until he discovers that it is being collected to purchase a golden candlestick which he intends to burn for St. Francis to honor the Pirate's dead dog. One of the houses burns down, so Danny allows his friends to move into the other house with him, and in gratitude Pilon tries to make life better for his friend. Things are fine at first until Danny's passion for a lovely girl (Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...

) causes him to actually go to work. A misunderstanding caused by Pilon about a vacuum cleaner causes Danny to lose it; he becomes drunk and a bit crazy. He almost dies in an accident in the cannery but through Pilon's prayers, is restored to health. He then marries his sweetheart with the promise that he will become a fisherman now that Pilon has found the money to buy a boat.
The happy ending is quite different from the novel's ending in which Danny dies after a fall, and is totally in keeping with the optimistic, feel-good, MGM movies of that time.

Cast

  • Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Tracy
    Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

     as Pilon
  • Hedy Lamarr
    Hedy Lamarr
    Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...

     as Dolores Ramirez
  • John Garfield
    John Garfield
    John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...

     as Daniel Alvarez
  • Frank Morgan
    Frank Morgan
    Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

     as The Pirate
  • Akim Tamiroff
    Akim Tamiroff
    Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...

     as Pablo
  • Sheldon Leonard
    Sheldon Leonard
    Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...

     as Tito Ralph
  • John Qualen
    John Qualen
    John Qualen was a Canadian-American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles....

     as Jesus Maria Corcoran
  • Donald Meek
    Donald Meek
    Donald Meek was a Scottish-born American character actor. He first worked as a stage actor and later became a film actor, starring in several movies including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Miss Broadway, and State Fair. Before becoming an actor, he fought in the Spanish-American War and...

     as Paul D. Cummings
  • Connie Gilchrist
    Connie Gilchrist
    Connie Gilchrist was a stage, film and television character actress.Born Rose Constance Gilchrist in Brooklyn, New York...

     as Mrs. Torelli
  • Allen Jenkins
    Allen Jenkins
    Allen Jenkins was an American character actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:He was born David Allen Curtis Jenkins in Staten Island, New York on April 9, 1900.-Career:...

     as Big Joe Portagee
  • Henry O'Neill
    Henry O'Neill
    Henry O'Neill was a film actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles during the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:...

     as Father Juan Ramon
  • Mercedes Ruffino as Mrs. Marellis
  • Nina Campana as Señora Teresina Cortez
  • Arthur Space
    Arthur Space
    Charles Arthur Space was an American film, television and stage actor. He was best known as Doc Weaver in the long running television series, Lassie.-Career:...

     as Mr. Brown
  • Betty Wells as Cesca
  • Harry Burns as Torelli

Awards

  • Best Supporting Actor
    Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

     (nomination) - Frank Morgan
    Frank Morgan
    Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK