Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

JohnHowardReid If I were asked which were the best scenes Victor Fleming had directed, I would answer, "The bar-room scenes in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." If I were asked which was the best film he directed, my reply would be "Tortilla Flat". I've never been able to understand the critical apathy to this fine film. I strongly suspect that most of them haven't seen it. I guarantee that if it was spoken in a foreign language, they would be rating it with silver stars and golden superlatives. I wish I could get hold of a dubbed Italian print. I'd pass it off as an early work by De Sica; and I bet I'd be able to land a score of rave reviews for the asking.A picaresque tale of life among squalid California paisanos, "Tortilla Flat" had rather an odd history: John Steinbeck wrote the novel in 1935 and found his first public. Dramatist Jack Kirkland (Tobacco Road) made it into a dirty, dismal, unsuccessful play in 1938, and socked friendly drama critic, Richard Watts Jr, for saying so. It went to Paramount for peanuts ($4,000) and after some customary Hollywood sleight-of-hand, wound up at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $60,000.After Steinbeck had come by success and a bank account (then swollen by the astronomical $300,000 Fox had paid for his novel-play, "The Moon Is Down"), he brooded over his wayward "Flat", and offered Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer $10,000 to buy it back. This virtually unheard- of maneuver produced its almost inevitable result: "Tortilla Flat" became a movie.Of all the big and little books Steinbeck has written, "Tortilla Flat" still rates with me as his most satisfying job. It wrestles with no big problems like The Grapes of Wrath or The Moon Is Down or Of Mice and Men. For though Steinbeck writes like a realist, he thinks like a sentimentalist. And in the frankly sentimental "Tortilla Flat", he writes about his lazy, simple-hearted Mexicans with a warming glow and an indulgent sympathy.It is the outstanding virtue of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's movie that — due mainly to Fleming's masterful control of atmosphere and acting — it preserves Steinbeck's sympathies.For the first time in her Hollywood career, Hedy Lamarr depends on no glamorous clothes or background to enhance her charms. She wears no fake eye-lashes, no make-up except a ten-cent lipstick and grease to darken her skin. Her costume cost less than four dollars and took less than four minutes to slip into. Commenting on the joys of working with her, John Garfield confessed: "I tried to steal scenes from Hedy, Hedy tried to steal them from Spencer Tracy, Tracy tried to steal from Frank Morgan, Morgan tried to steal from me, and the dogs stole the show."Garfield's witticism, of course, is somewhat inaccurate. Tracy's performance is by far the best. Morgan's ingrained tendency to over- act is always evident — especially in his later scenes. As for the dogs: their vision strikes a somewhat jarring note, and the scene would be better deleted, if only in the interests of good taste.Fleming's great achievement in "Tortilla Flat" was that he created a leisurely atmosphere, without causing us to lose interest in the proceedings. It is true that he was helped considerably by Karl Freund's photographic expertise and the John Lee Mahin-Benjamin Glazer script itself. After all, we don't meet characters like these paisanos every night. Their story is as fascinating as it is original and off-beat. But even so, we could still get bored with them, if they were not handled with a polished touch and a sure sense of timing.

wisconsinator While a fairly well-written story by Steinbeck, it really could have been better acted, been perhaps less musical, and had more than a couple token Latinos in it. I am also unclear as to why all of the Latino/Hispanic people called each-other Paesano, since that is Italian, right? My main criticism of this film, and the reason I opted to write this review, is that as I watched it, I kept thinking "why all of these actors/actresses who are NOT Latino/Latina, playing these roles??" So, here's the ethnic background of the main members of the cast: Spencer Tracy as Pilon -IRISH; Hedy Lamarr as Dolores Ramirez -Eastern European Jewish; John Garfield as Danny -Russian Jewish; Frank Morgan as The Pirate -Germanic; Akim Tamiroff as Pablo -Armenian; Sheldon Leonard as Tito Ralph -Jewish; John Qualen as Jose Corcoran- Johan Mandt Kvalen was Norwegian; Donald Meek as Paul Cummings -Scottish; Connie Gilchrist as Mrs Torrelli -probably English; Allen Jenkins as Portagee Joe was born Alfred McGonegal, he was probably Irish; Henry O'Neill as Father Ramon -O'Neill is an Irish name; Mercedes Ruffino as Mrs Marellis was born in Cuba; Nina Campana as Señora Teresina was born Esperanza Susanna de Ybarrondo, she was a real Latina; Arthur Space as Mr Brown- I don't know, but he was NOT Latino.

Swithin "Tortilla Flat" is a good movie. In some ways, it reminds me of "Juarez," another film in which John Garfield plays a Latino. The similarity is that both are good films that have contained within them really terrific scenes. I guess you could say that in these films, the parts are in some ways greater than the whole.For me, the best scenes in "Tortilla Flat" revolve around Frank Morgan, who plays a sort of tramp (homeless man) who goes around with a bunch of dogs. Like Mr. Morgan, one of the dogs seems to have appeared in "The Wizard of Oz" -- yes, I think Toto is in "Tortilla Flat." Not surprising, since both films were directed by Victor Fleming.But the most extraordinary scene is that in which Frank Morgan has gathered his five dogs, in the midst of the majestic Redwood Forest, and relates to the dogs the story of St. Francis. As he is telling the story, the dogs actually have a vision! As the vision hovers, and the dogs react, Morgan averts his eyes. When the vision passes, Morgan shouts to the dogs: "Did you see him? Did you see him? It was St. Francis! What good boys you must be to see St. Francis!"I know of few other films that depict pure religious experience so effectively. It raises this good film onto another level.

serval26 Okay yes, Spencer Tracy does NOT look like a Paisano, but his performance in this movie is pretty cool and worth noting. I absolutely loved the book and Spencer Tracy's portrayal of Pilon went above and beyond what I expected the character to turn out like on screen. Frank Morgan was wonderful too. The scenes with the songs are particularly charming.The story is about homeless men who live life one day at a time. Their biggest concern of each day is how they're going to acquire wine. Their friend Danny inherits two houses and Pilon is concerned that this newfound wealth is affecting their friendship.Along the way they bring in more roommates including the wonderful Pirate character and the guys get into some shenanigans involving what else? Money, women and wine.I also very much adored the simplicity of Victor Fleming's direction. He made a lot of beautiful shots, especially of the Pirate's adorable dogs!