Riffraff

Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy find love on the waterfront in this MGM production that has a Warner's look and feel. With its hardboiled and run down backdrop it also addresses contemporary issues of labor unrest, Red union infiltration as well as managing to sneak some risqué moments by the censor.

Dutch Muller (Tracy) is the best fisherman on the dock and he knows it. A bit of a charmer he has no problem with the ladies as well. Cannery worker Hattie (Harlow) has her sights on him but the pugnacious and confident Dutch isn't about to get tied down and the exchanges between the two are usually filled with invective. They weather and eventually wear each other down before getting hitched. When labor problems arise Dutch's arrogance and pride get's the best of him and he finds himself living in aq track side hobo camp. Faithful Hattie attempts to right him but instead ends up being sentenced to a long stretch at a women's prison. Dutch in turn vows to spring her.

Tracy and Harlow display a nice down to earth terse chemistry driven by pride and desire. Muller's thickheadedness seems impervious to penetrate but the resourceful Hattie's drive is not to be denied and while there is perhaps an overabundance of shouting between the two the tenderness comes across as natural and genuine. A trio of scene stealers Una Merkle, Joseph Calleia and Mickey Rooney doing a waterfront Puck also add to the story's humor and rhythm.

Riffraff does get a little improbable during its climax but Tracy and Harlow's dogged persistence and interplay give it an irascible verve.

"Riffraff" stars Spencer Tracy in an odd role for him and the lovely Jean Harlow as his wife in a story involving the tuna fishermen set, unions, prison, hobos and the like.

It's a true potboiler with Harriet (Harlow) sacrificing everything for her man, an egotistical, bombastic fellow named Rudolph Muller. He's determined to make good but his stubbornness and big mouth get in the way.

Tracy is ill-suited for this role, though at the time, he was mainly playing character roles, and this certainly is one. But the actor comes off as too smart to be playing such a dumb lug.

A year later, his stock at MGM would begin to rise, and he would transition out of this type of role into leading man parts as Bogart did. Tracy is much better in the second part of the film, where he's called upon to show his emotive range, than in the first part where his character is established.

Though Harlow plays a cannery worker turned wife, she still gets to be glamorous in a couple of scenes where the big boss, Nick (Joseph Calleia) takes her out.

Harlow comes off tough and streetwise enough to be right for the role, and she does it well. Actually, she seems more comfortable than Tracy.

MGM at that point was trying to expand the range of this incredibly popular actress. The film was made in 1935, and of course, by 1937 she would be dead, but not before doing another -- and far superior - film with Tracy, "Libeled Lady."

All in all, there's nothing special about "Riffraff" except the two stars, but Tracy and Harlow were always special, so it's worth a look.

Temperamental fisherman Dutch Muller (Spencer Tracy) marries cannery worker Hattie (Jean Harlow), but their marriage may not be able to survive Dutch's union work.

Riffraff is incredibly fun. Harlow is perfect, and the supporting cast is great. Una Merkel is a hoot as Harlow's sister, Joseph Calleia has another role as a smooth gangster. Mickey Rooney has some good comedy scenes as Harlow's brother(!). Spencer Tracy is an actor I've never really cared for, and I wish his role had been played by somebody else. Someone like Jimmy Cagney would have been perfect, but Tracy does a passable job.

The script, co-written by Anita Loos, is all over the place: sometimes it's a comedy, or sometimes it's a social drama. The direction is functional but unspectacular. Overall, this is definitely a B film, but it's elevated by Harlow's performance.

In watching Riffraff again I'm struck with the burning question, what did Jean Harlow see in Spencer Tracy?

Both are working class people, he's a commercial fisherman she's his sweetheart who works in the cannery owned by Joseph Calleia. He's a blustering, pigheaded, egomanaical boorish lout of a human being, kind of lovable in his own crude way. But stack him up against Joseph Calleia, foreign accent and all, there ain't a contest. Calleia is the guy all the fishermen deal with as independent contractors with their catch. He's shrewd and clever, ruthless at times, but definitely not stupid.

Frankly if it were me in Harlow's place, there's no contest. Take up with Joseph Calleia and give Spence the old heave-ho. But if Jean did that there'd be no movie.

Tracy's taking a part that normally would have been given to Wallace Beery at MGM. Maybe before San Francisco that's how MGM executives saw Tracy, a B picture Beery. It's similar to some of the roles he played at Fox. But I can't recall another film where he played a guy so dumb.

In fact the film is an odd property for MGM. This thing should have been made at Warner Brothers with Cagney and O'Brien.

But Jean loves her man through thick and thin, even goes to jail to protect him. I can hear Fanny Brice singing in the background.

Riffraff doesn't belong at the top of the list of film credits for either Tracy or Harlow. Mickey Rooney as Harlow's younger brother, Joseph Calleia as the boss, and J. Farrell MacDonald as the wise and compassionate head of the fisherman's union have the best roles.

But you want to see Tracy and Harlow sparkle? Go buy or rent Libeled Lady.

I had high expectations with both Tracy and Harlow in it, but there's just way too much yelling at each other. Jean Harlow comes off better, but Tracy is not a very likable guy through most of the movie.