Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Hitchcoc This is a terrific movie with Lionel Barrymore, Spencer Tracy, and Freddy Bartholomew, among others. It is the story of a spoiled child who has never lacked for anything, falling off his father's ocean liner and being picked up by Manuel (Tracy) and brought to their fishing boat. He makes demands on the crew, feeling Iike the world should stop because he is on the ship. They, however, have to get to the Grand Banks and fish at the most opportune time for them. They will get him back in due time, but for now, he is meaningless to them. Not really meaningless, but certainly an annoyance. This is about a change of the soul. The boy goes through a transition as he gets to know the men he eventually works with. He gets to know that people work for a living and life is hard. He also gets to know a loneliness. Bartholomew is a sad figure because it's obvious that his own father, Melvyn Douglas, has had little time for him. This is a beautiful story which creates changes from the book but stands on its own.

calvinnme While it is an occasionally spirited film dealing with fishermen and their vessels on the seas, I am struck by the film's emotional core, which are those scenes of remarkable intimacy between Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew. The two actors have a sublime rapport, assisted by the direction of Victor Fleming. Tracy won an Oscar, of course, for his touching, humane portrayal which mixes wisdom with humor and courage, as Manuel, a simple Portuguese fisherman who teaches a young boy about life and helps that formerly spoiled young man mature. Bartholomew, in the role of the rich man's son, gives what has to be the performance of his career.I'm always particularly touched by the scene towards the film's end in which Bartholomew tries, in his own way, to tell the fisherman of his love for him. And it really is a moment of love between these two. Tracy is talking to the boy about the fact that the boy's father will be anxiously looking for him and they will need to be reunited. Bartholmew acknowledges that statement, but starts to ramble. He keeps his head down, looking at the floor as he tries to tell Tracy how he feels. It's one of the most heart wrenching moments ever captured on film. A little boy, formerly self absorbed and proud, dropping all pretense of pride as he emotionally opens up to a man he loves and respects, and can't bear to leave. Tracy, stunned, deeply moved, can only say, "My leetle feesh," as he places his hand on the boy's face. His look and that gentle simple gesture beautifully expresses his feelings at the moment, too. It's a scene that never fails to move me.Later in the film, after the fisherman, the boy's friend and hero, has drowned, Bartholomew, in that scene in which he cries in Manuel's boat, as his father tries to comfort him, captures the anguish and despair that we all feel when we have lost someone very special in our lives, and know we will never see that person again. Victor Fleming touchingly directs a moment which, to me, captures the agony of a young boy dealing with the terrible permanence of death.

evening1 This film starts a little slowly as it tries to show how much of a little twit Harvey (Freddie Bartholemew) really is.It gets a lot better once the boy is out at sea, having fallen overboard from a fancy liner and been rescued by Manuel, played well by a Portuguese-accented Spencer Tracy.An unlikely friendship builds between the spoiled brat and the old salt, backed up by Manuel's lovely hurdy-gurdy shanties and rousing scenes of wind-whipped,tumultuous seas.This film's cast is all-male until the poignant, penultimate scene in Gloucester, Mass., at which men, women, boys, and girls cast flowers and wreaths into the brine that has claimed their seafaring loved ones.I watched this film with my 11-year-old son, who at first was resistant but got drawn in. I agree with an earlier reviewer who said they just don't make movies like this anymore! A modern version would have to dazzle us with all sorts of computer-generated special effects. But this one wisely finds all the drama it needs in the relationship between two souls. The heir-less Manuel had lost his father at sea and gains a son before descending to his own fate.Perhaps there is a lesson here for oversolicitous, overprotective parents: Give your son some space! Let him find his own way. Give him a chance to become the man you hope will develop. Anchors away!

lugonian CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1937), directed by Victor Fleming, from a literary classic by Rudyard Kipling, stars child actor Freddie Bartholomew in another one of his classic film roles. Having played Charles Dicken's immortal character of "David Copperfield" (MGM, 1935) and the title role of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (United Artists, 1936), his portrayal of Harvey Cheyne no doubt tops them all. Regardless of this being a Bartholomew starrer and his character study from start to finish, the end result turns out to be an Academy Award winning performance for Spencer Tracy as Best Actor in what's actually a supporting category.The story introduces Harvey Elsworth Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew), a ten-year-old lad, who, unknown to his business-tycoon father, Frank Burton Cheyne (Melvyn Douglas), that his own son is a pampered, obnoxious rich boy who believes he can get his own way by lying, cheating and making demands on others, especially his friends and live-in servants. While attending the Green Hill School for Boys, Harvey becomes very unpopular when discovered to have bribed a fellow student with a rare first edition of "Treasure Island" and offering $50 to his teacher, Bob Tyler (Donald Briggs), in order to make his exams easier for him to pass. After getting a punch in the nose by one of the boys, Harvey leaves school and turns to his father for moral support. After learning the truth from the school board members and of Harvey's suspension, Cheyne, at the advise of Doctor C.A. Finlay (Walter Kingsford), agrees to spend quality time with Harvey on an ocean lining cruise bound for Europe where father and son can get to know and understand each other better. On their first day out, Cheyne attends to business, leaving Harvey to make an impression on a couple of boy passengers (Wally Albright and Tommy Bupp) by treating them to large ice cream sodas. Harvey, showing off, drinks and finishes all six of them in one sitting. An upset stomach causes Harvey to break away from the boys, who follow him to watch him get sick. Hiding behind a lifeboat, Harvey falls overboard into the ocean where he's spotted by Manuel Fidello (Spencer Tracy), a Portuguese fisherman. Maniel picks up the half-drowned boy, placing him into his row boat. Taken onto a vessel, "We're Here," consisting of fellow crew members as the pipe smoking Captain Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore), his son, Dan (Mickey Rooney), Long Jack (John Carradine), Uncle Salters, (Charley Grapewin), Doc, the cook (Sam McDaniel), among others, the now conscience Harvey becomes appalled that he's unable to return back to his father or be taken to New York, having to remain on board the New England schooner for three months before they port back to Gloucester, Massachusetts. Because Manuel fished Harvey out of the ocean, it is now Manuel's responsibility to watch over this rebellious "Little Fish," humiliated for having to work among the other fishermen for #3 a month.Whether CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS is faithful to the Kipling novel or not really doesn't matter, for that it's a great film that can be reviewed numerous times without any loss of interest. Freddie Bartholomew shows what a remarkable young actor he's become. Outstanding performance, second to Bartholomew, goes to Spencer Tracy as the kind-hearted fisherman who goes through his taming of the shrew with a boy named Harvey. While the role of Manuel could have enacted by notable accented speaking veteran actors as J. Carrol Naish or Leo Carrillo, the big surprise comes from Tracy, the curly dark-haired Portuguese with spoken dialect. Classic moment comes from Manuel's playing the vielle as he sings, "Don't Cry Little Fish." Franz Waxman and Gus Kahn, who composed this little ditty, also took part in another, "Oh, What a Terrible Ma," sung by the fishing crew while chopping their bait. Honorable mention goes to John Carradine playing one of the other fishermen, and his confrontation with Manuel after threatening to "beat the ears off" of Harvey for playing such a horrible prank on him. It is during this tense moment that Tracy's Manuel briefly loses his accent defending the boy. Lionel Barrymore's finest moments come when giving Harvey his long awaited slap, and quoting what's become the moral of the story, "A boy is never too old to need a dad." One curious item that should have been included in the screenplay are possible scenes revolving around Cheyne's reaction after disappearance of his son, what measures he goes through to have him found, and wondering whether or not he survived the fall into the ocean.Though CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS had been imitated, but not credited to Kipling, for the western, CATTLE DRIVE (Columbia, 1951) starring Joel McCrea and Dean Stockwell in the Tracy and Bartholomew roles, the Kipling tale was retold twice as made-for-television movies, first in 1977 starring Jonathan Kahn and Ricardo Montalban (as Manuel), and again in 1996 with Robert Ulrich and Kenny Vadas. Distributed to home video and later DVD, CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS turns up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. For anyone who's never seen the original, give it a try. It's definitely a winner. "Ye ho little fish, don't cry, don't cry. Ye ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry." (****)