Man's Castle

This is very dated, but that's part of the charm with this 1933 movie. You can say the same for most Pre-Code films; they're just different, and usually in an interesting way.

It was the short running time, the great acting of Spencer Tracy and the beautiful face and sweetness of Loretta Young's character which kept me watching and enjoying this stagy-but-intriguing film.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a nicer girl than "Trinna," played by the 20-year-old Young who was already into making her 50th movie! (She started acting as a small child. That, and the fact they made movies quickly back in the old days.) The camera, although in soft focus throughout much of the film, zoomed in on Loretta's face and eyes many times and I was mesmerized by her beauty.

Playing a crotchety man with a cynical outlook on life, Tracy's "Bill" slowly transformed into a loving man, thanks to Trinna. Spencer delivered his lines here with such naturalness that you hardly knew he was acting.

Although they have small roles, supporting actors Walter Connolly, Marjorie Rambeau, Arthur Hohl and Glenda Farrell leave lasting impressions long after viewing this 75-minute film. I was particularly fascinated with Connolly's role as the minister/father figure of the camp.

The story is a little far-fetched but - hey - that's the movies. This story is about two lonely Great Depression victims trying to survive in a "Hooverville"-type camp and it winds up to be a very touching tale.

Man's Castle is a wonderful example of a Pre-Code film. It involves realistic events with truly enjoyable and imperfect characters. Spencer Tracy plays Bill, a free soul without a dime in his pocket. He makes a living doing odd jobs and traveling to a new city when he gets bored of his surroundings. One night, he meets Trina, a beauty by any standards who is cold and alone. She has refused to resort to prostitution so she has not eaten for several days, but the two take very well to each other and form a relationship. His free spirit tempts him to leave her, so life is rocky, but there is a true spark between the two, even if they live in a shack by the river.

Tracy is one of the great actors of the silver screen. His characters are amazing and relatable. We can see his thoughts on his face, making him easy to identify with, even if we believe he is behaving badly. Young is great in pre-code films. Her character is very sweet but far from perfect, making her all the more likable.

Pre-code elements include skinny dipping, pregnancy before marriage, and crime.

Unfortunately, this film has long been unavailable (as other posters have noted), but this is one of the essential dramas of the Great Depression, a lyrical and touching drama of love set in a shanty-town. It features performances by Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young that are just about the finest of their careers, and it's a surpassing example of how the director, Frank Borzage, was able to create an almost fairy-tale aura around elements of poverty, crime, and horrendous social inequity, which just proves that how truly romantic and spiritual his talents were. This film shows how love survives amidst squalor and desperate need, and it is totally life-affirming. This is a real masterpiece of the period, and is a movie that deserves to be more widely known.

Bill (Spencer Tracy) and Trina (Loretta Young) meet on a park bench during the depth of the Great Depression where Trina admits she has not eaten in two days - she is homeless and jobless like so many others. Bill is dressed in a tuxedo, she thinks he is rich. He invites her to eat a sumptuous meal at a fine restaurant. But it turns out he is broke and manages to bluster and threaten his - and her - way out of trouble with the restaurant. They very shortly end up lovers, living together in a shack in a homeless encampment of other forgotten men and women. Lots of complications that you have probably seen in other precode films ensue.

This movie was a lot like other Borzage films, in particular the director seemed like he was trying for a redo of the earthbound parts of Lilliom to some extent with traces of Seventh Heaven - A poor, lonely girl falls head over heels for a swaggering lay about who seems, from the outside, to use and mistreat her and have no appreciation for her. But her love sees past his cloddish behavior and fulfills her so completely that, for her, the domestic life she makes with him is bliss.

The casting is what makes the difference in this film. As opposed to Lilliom's Charles Farrell, Spencer Tracy is believable as someone who could throw a punch and knock somebody out and never give full throated - or even half throated - praise to Young's character, yet there is tenderness under that rough and seemingly uncaring exterior. Likewise, when Young moons after Tracy, the screen lights up like Times Square. That makes all the difference in terms of how much we're likely to be invested in her love for a guy who doesn't really deserve it (though it's also true that she domesticates/redeems Tracy a lot more over the course of Man's Castle).

The supporting cast is excellent too. Arthur Hoyl is the aptly named Bragg who lusts after Young and tries to get her by fair means or foul. Marjorie Rambeau is a hardened perpetually drunken woman whose problems probably started a long time before the Great Depression started. Columbia stalwart Walter Connolly is an ex preacher living in the encampment who is quite gentle and fatherly with the other residents to the point that I wonder how he got there and how he stopped being a man of the cloth.

I'd highly recommend this one, which has only recently been restored.

As other reviewers have noted, this is an unjustly neglected Depression-era film. Directed by Frank Borzage (two Oscars) and written by Jo Swerling (Leave Her to Heaven, The Westerner, Lifeboat, etc.), it is a tough-minded, well-structured and -realized move about denizens of a New York City shantytown. They're grifters, beggars, and women forced into prostitution, but they're a community of people both good and bad, with loyalties as complex as any group's.

Perhaps primary among this movie's many admirable qualities is the contrast between Spencer Tracy's character, Bill, and Loretta Young's Trina. He tough-talking, physically aggressive, and evidently fearless-- but Bill is not the character who gives this film its steely sense of survival. While he blusters, Trina actually hangs tough (if that term can be applied to a character so ladylike). Her devotion to him is obvious, and complete. When she becomes pregnant, she says she will raise it herself if he wants to leave. Such is the dignity of Loretta Young's performance (at age 20) as a very simple, even simple-minded character, that she seems neither weak or dependent, but rather a woman who recognizes happiness when she finds it, and love, and who has learned the hard way that it's worth holding on to because it doesn't come around often, and what's rare is precious.