Man's Castle

My parents lived through the depression, and they would have found themselves right at home in the world of Man's Castle. Bill's roughness is entirely appropriate for the times, given that he must live by his wits in a difficult world. Trina's sweetness seems a bit unreal, given the cynicism of our times, but I believed in it because Loretta Young gives a very natural and moving performance. She was only 20 and acts like a much more experienced performer.

The romanticism of the movie is wonderful to see. Borzage--whose work I'd never seen before--believes in what he's doing and makes us believe in it too. Roosevelt is fresh in the White House and there is a spirit of hope and renewal in the country. I could criticize the editing for being a little too abrupt (cutting the film down to fit the B part of a double-bill), as an example the scene with Bill and Fay in her rooms, but that doesn't detract from my admiration.

This is a curious but wonderfully acted love story. The protagonists are not your typical love-struck young romantic couple but complicated broken people just about surviving the poverty of living in one of the Hooverville shanty towns of 1932's New York. There's not a lot of humour in this drama but that doesn't make it at all miserable and depressing. It's not like a badly written naïve play where happiness blooms in the face of adversity - it's more thoughtful than that but is nevertheless quite uplifting.

Spencer Tracy's character, Bill is the absolute opposite of a romantic hero. He is such a well written character played so well by Spencer Tracy that we really don't really know what he is like, who he is or what he's done. We would however love to find out who is really there behind that façade or how he got like that. On the surface he seems to be an unpleasant battle-scared shell of a man incapable of expressing any emotion, feelings or even sense of being part of society.

Loretta Young's 'Trina' could not be more different. She is from a different place to Bill, she is from a world that disappeared when Wall Street crashed three years ago and is a complete stranger to the world Bill seems so comfortable in. She longs for love and longs for the impossible dream of a happy life in this upside down world. Loretta Young's almost impossible prettiness adds to the tragedy and pathos of her character who seems so lost, so unable to cope with the life she now has to live. Bill is her lifeline and she's not going to let go. She throws herself into the fantasy of happiness with him despite being treated like his slave, despite the constant emotional cruelty and despite Bill having a fling with the local show-girl. If this story were written today, she would be the archetypical battered, mentally and physically abused wife, not leaving her abusive husband because she knows deep down that he loves her.

This has the feel of being a really good drama that you'd pay good money to watch live in a cramped theatre. It's a mature and surprisingly subtle look at how love - if indeed it is love, can happen in the most unlikely of places. Although it is quite stylised, especially the camp which doesn't look as awful as I suspect in reality it was, as a motion picture it is excellent. Director Frank Borzage creates an enclosed real little world inhabited by real people which plays with your emotions. Sometimes you're hoping Trina and Bill will stay together and live happily ever after - sometimes you're hoping something or someone will separate them because you can see that it's a destructive relationship. It's also beautifully filmed and although it gets a little slow at times is still entertaining and stays in your mind long after the final credits.

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.

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.

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.