JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Robert J. Maxwell Nothing much new about the romantic stuff. Spencer Tracy takes Loretta Young into his shack, neither of them having anything resembling other resources. Tracy finds an older blond who is willing to keep him in food and clothes, but then Loretta Young has to go and spring it on Tracy that she's preggers. It puts Tracy in a quandary. He likes to think of himself as a free man, a drifter who rides the rails at will. He tries to pull off a robbery after marrying Young, with the intention of leaving the boodle with her and taking off on his own. But they are in love and he winds up taking her with him. Last scene: the married pair lying together on the straw of an empty box car rattling through the night.It sounded so dull at first that I thought for a moment box cars were forming on my retina. However, the film is saved by its ethnographic perspective and by the earnest performances. You just have to swallow the love story which, by the way, isn't entirely boring.The movie was released in 1933, meaning it was shot in 1932 and written a bit earlier. That was pre-code and in the depths of the Great Depression. (If it weren't pre-code, you wouldn't have Loretta Young getting pregnant and planning to have a bastard child.) But what a glimpse of life at the bottom when no one had any work. Tracy's Hooverville shack somewhere in New York City is made out of garbage. Cardboard, corrugated iron, no stove, discarded automobile doors, and other junk, a divine assembly of bricolage. And, boy, does Loretta Young dress it up and turn it into a home. Women are always doing things like that. They just can't leave a man alone to live like a billy goat. Anyway, it illustrates some of the stresses associated with utter poverty.The performances are fine too. Many actors seemed to follow a similar trajectory -- small parts in clumsy early movies (Bogart, Cary Grant) -- but Tracy came straight from Broadway and brought with him the persona that would last him throughout his career. He was tough, restrained, practical. Loretta Young -- I never realized how many movies she made in the 30s when she was young. She began at the age of 15 with a major part in one of Lon Chaney's silents. She's powerful pretty in an innocent and slightly chubby way. She can fix up the hovel I live in any time.

lugonian MAN'S CASTLE (Columbia, 1933), directed by Frank Borzage, is not so much about a British king and his royal subjects, but a Depression-era story of survival and one man who's castle happens to be the great outdoors in a shanty community. Starring future Academy Award winners Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young in their only pairing together, and direction by two-time award winning Borzage, it's very much pre-code movie with enough material not commonly found in motion pictures after the production code was fully enforced by 1934.Set in New York City, the story opens in Central Park where Bill (Spencer Tracy), dressed in top hat and tuxedo, is feeding popcorn to the pigeons. Seated next to him on the bench is Trina (Loretta Young), homeless, hungry and desperate. At first he takes her for a panhandler, but believing her story that she hasn't eaten in two days, treats her to a meal in an nearby expensive restaurant. As much as Bill appears to be a man of wealth, he's just as broke as Trina. Due to his self confidence, he talks his way out of paying the check to the manager (Harvey Clark). Later that night, Bill takes Trina to his place of residence, a "Park Avenue" section along the East River called Shanty Town, where the homeless victims of the Depression are gathered together in run down shacks, including Ira (Walter Connolly), a churchless preacher who quotes scriptures from the Bible; Flossie (Marjorie Rambeau), an argumentative drunk; and Bragg (Arthur Hohl), a man not to be trusted, all close friends of Bill's. Through the course of time, Trina, having moved in with Bill, keeps house for him while he acquires various lines of work to support himself, and when not working odd jobs, finds time playing baseball with the neighborhood kids. Helping Bragg with one of his assignments as process server, Bill succeeds in where others have failed - that of personally handling a subpoena to entertainer, Fay LaRue (Glenda Farrell) and facing up to several of her tough thug bodyguards. Because Bill is having an affair with Fay (who likes his nerve), Bragg tries to step in on Trina, now pregnant with Bill's baby. When Bill learns he's about to become a father, he's faced with a decision to either catch the next train out of town or join forces with Bragg on a job that could get them in trouble with the law.This seldom revived love story is one from the time capsule, capturing, in a reality sense, the hardships and struggles of the Great Depression. Borzage offers some reflection of the times as the camera focuses on Bill and Trina walking down Broadway with movie marque titles of the day visible in background, namely George Raft and Sylvia Sidney starring PICK UP (Paramount, 1933). As for the script, it portrays Tracy as tough, irresponsible and confident in a physical sense. He charms women with his dynamic personality but in reality is unable to face up to any responsibility. When asked what he does for a living, he responds, "I LIVE!" When not working, he's out playing baseball with the neighborhood kids. Almost immediately, Bill makes Trina his own. The very night of their initial union, they end up skinny dipping in the East River, a scene that certainly raised a few eyebrows way back when. As much as Bill doesn't waste any time, neither does Trina. At first she's shy and lacks confidence, but loses all fears once she's in the company with Bill. Like Trina, Fay (Glenda Farrell) becomes attracted to Bill, admiring his big shot personality. Farrell's Fay sings one song titled, "Surprise." No doubt, she gets one from Bill. Other noteworthy support goes to Arthur Hohl as Tracy's underhanded friend; Connolly the middle-aged preaching night watchman. and Dickie Moore briefly seen as the crippled boy with leg in brace who gets an autographed baseball from Bill. Existing still photos of Helen MacKeller indicate her withdraw from production and substituted by character actress, Marjorie Rambeau, whose mannerisms and performance reminds any film buf of Gladys George.Not televised in the New York City area since the 1960s, MAN's CASTLE seemed destined to never be seen again. Aside from revival movie houses in the 1970s, cable television helped bring films such as this back to life again. One of its earliest known broadcasts was on Wometo Home Theater in 1985, followed by other cable channels before turning up on Turner Classic Movies on August 31, 2008, during its "Summer Under the Stars" presentation and 24-hour salute to Spencer Tracy. For a 1933 film, circulating prints to MAN'S CASTLE are from latter 1930s reissues, substituting a 1940s Columbia logo over the pre-1936 style trademark of woman holding a lighted torch in dark background. Often labeled at 76 minutes, TCM print is a few minutes shorter.While no castle is evident, a story of a man named Bill and a girl named Trina (along with impressive close-up shots of Loretta Young's youthful beauty), is all that's needed for a simple story about simple folks. (***)

Michael_Elliott Man's Castle (1933) *** (out of 4) A rather bizarre love story from Borzage set during the Depression-era as two different people are brought together through being poor. Spencer Tracy plays a hot tempered man who has the charm to live a good life but instead plays it day to day just making what he has to. He takes in a poor woman (Loretta Young) and they hit it off well even though he mistreats her and she might want something out of him that he'd never be able to give. If the term love story makes you want to pass this film up then you might want to think again because this isn't the tear jerker that would have women lining up buying tickets. Instead, this is a pretty mean spirited pre-code that has all sorts of stuff from premarital sex to abused women to suffering because of being poor and even a brief mention of an abortion. Did I mention that Tracy and Young go skinny dipping early in the movie? At the heart of the film is a love story but we've got so much other stuff going on that you might lose site of that. For starters, Tracy's character is one of the biggest S.O.B's you'll likely see in a film from this era. He's incredibly mean and often takes it out on Young who doesn't mind getting insulted or being left behind when he's out with other women. I think a lot of people are going to be turned off because of how mean he is but I guess this is a part of the "moral" in the film. Tracy delivers another fine performance and I think the reason I personally didn't hate his character more is because of how good the actor was. He certainly pulls off the meanness without any trouble but at the same time you can just look at him and know there's something under that toughness. Young, perhaps my favorite actress, also delivers another winning performance. She's very believable in the abused woman role even though you want to ask her why she's with the jerk. The film has a message about a lot of issues and this is another reason why it remains rather fresh today especially since we're going through another hard time with people without jobs and unable to eat. The speech Tracy's character gives to a restaurant early on is something that would probably get a standing ovation today.

Greta-Garbo It's a shame this movie is so hard to get your hands on in the US. I found it through a rare video dealer, and it was certainly worth it. This is, without a doubt, the best film made during the pre-code era, and the finest film of the 1930s. Masterful director Frank Borzage made wonderful films about the Depression, and with MAN'S CASTLE he created a fairy tale amidst the hardships of the era.Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy have a wonderful chemistry between them, and they help make this movie a wonderful romance. Young's Trina is sweet and hopeful, while Tracy's Bill is gruff and closed-off. The dynamic between the character creates one of the most difficult, but in the end rewarding relationships on film.MAN'S CASTLE is the most soft-focus pre-code film I've seen. Borzage uses the hazy and dreamy technique to turn the squatter's village where Bill and Trina live into a palace. The hardships of the Depression are never ignored, in fact they're integral to the film. But as Borzage crafts the film as a soft focus fairy tale, the love between the characters makes the situation seem less harsh. It makes the film warm and affectionate.MAN'S CASTLE is the crowning achievement of the pre-code era. If only more people could see it.