"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.
