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The cuckold in the water, "the best bait in the whole Pacific Ocean." San Diego fishermen, among them the Portuguese captain (Edward G. Robinson), hale and hearty even after his arm is gobbled up by a shark. (Dissolve from raft adrift to hook limb massaging his buddy's back, it comes in handy later when it digs into a sharpie's shoulder.) Nets and harpoons and shotguns figure in the work, the aquatic beast is hoisted and pummeled with oars. From an easygoing joke on Moby Dick to an easygoing joke on Anna Christie, the dead mate's daughter (Zita Johann) courted until she promises marriage but not love. "He wants me, I guess. He can have me." The best friend (Richard Arlen) completes the triangle, the shivaree darkens. Garnett milieu (Her Man), Wellman complications (Other Men's Women), a remarkable vitality of composition from Howard Hawks. Massive tuna speared on the seesawing deck, a dash of documentary amid the melodrama, on to a conveyor belt and then the protagonist's frying pan. The persistent vision of the group and the void, fun and danger in continuous play. (Another Hawks staple, a lamplight on the lady gives a lambent snapshot of Johann's morose beauty.) Vivid location shooting, Robinson charges through like Raimu with curls and earring. Spirituality pokes its head through the visceral physicality, morbid and mocking, the wholeness of man contemplated by roughnecks at the pearly gates: "No fisherman can go to Heaven with a bite out of him," Saint Peter was a sardine kind of guy. Walsh has Robinson for the unofficial remake of Manpower, the line of influence encompasses Spawn of the North, The Lady from Shanghai, Stromboli. With Leila Bennett, Vince Barnett, J. Carrol Naish, and William Ricciardi. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |