Tortilla Flat [VHS]

Tortilla Flat [VHS]
by Victor Fleming

Tortilla Flat [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Akim Tamiroff, Frank Morgan, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Spencer Tracy
Director: Victor Fleming
Cinematographer: Karl Freund
Cinematographer: Sidney Wagner
Editor: James E. Newcom
Producer: Sam Zimbalist
Writer: Benjamin Glazer
Writer: John Lee Mahin
Writer: John Steinbeck
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 105 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Studio: MGM (Warner)

VHS Movie Reviews of Tortilla Flat [VHS]

Movie Review: Flat is the operative word in Tortilla Flat
Summary: 1 Stars

I saw this movie on TCM. The Hispanic guest commentator was not impressed and neither was I. He spoke about it as if it was a train wreck, and, frankly, it's difficult to disagree.

The extremely low-budget flick was pretty much a total waste of time and certainly a waste of talent. Spencer Tracy must have looked back on his illustrious acting career replete with two Oscars and many more Oscar nominations and wondered why he ever accepted the role. But even he wasn't consistent with his accent; it was all over the place.

I thought it was insulting to Hispanics the way Tracy kept tricking them with simple tricks.

I found it very difficult to give a damn about any of the characters. They were not properly developed. Even the early storyline about inheritance is ridiculously rushed.

Hedy Lamarr does okay with her role and she is there for some kind of romantic subplot, but most of the time she's angry at the man who wants her and she ends up marrying. When she's not telling him to get away from her after he shows up at work, or the time he forces himself on her (sexual harassment), and gets out her knife, threatening to cut him to pieces, she's slapping him across the face for a rude remark he made about her being happy to marry anyone who has money.

But then there's a huge jump from the non-relationship to them getting married at the end. What did he ever do for her? He bought her a vacuum cleaner (which she couldn't even use because her house didn't have electricity). That's one of my pet peeves about old "romance" in movies. The men and women do and say very little but somehow they're suddenly madly in love. O-kay. What-ever. It must be nice to be so easily impressed.

Most of the characters had bad manners. The best behaved of the lot are the dogs.

Movie Review: MGM + Steinbeck = Disaster
Summary: 2 Stars

Time has not been kind to "Tortilla Flat" (1942). Spencer Tracy, John Garfield and Hedy Lamarr are regrettably miscast in this disappointing adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1935 novel. However, Frank Morgan earned an Oscar nomination for his standout performance as the dog-loving hermit - the best aspect of director Victor Fleming's misguided comedy-drama. The Steinbeck realism is hopelessly lost amid the MGM gloss.

Movie Review: Sad, sad people
Summary: 1 Stars

I just can't get enthralled about a book/movie that attempts to find humor and lightheartedness in alcoholism and poverty. The characters are lazy, shiftless do-nothings who give a bad name to the human race.

Movie Review: McCARTHY AT HOLLYWOOD AND VINE (Episode #172)
Summary: 5 Stars

INTERVIEWER: Welcome back! We're here again with Stephen T. McCarthy and discussing the Hollywood classics in glorious black and white. Tell us, Stephen, what makes TORTILLA FLAT, the 1942 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel of the same name, one of your favorite films of all-time?

McCARTHY: Well, there's a great deal of wine-drinking in it.

INTERVIEWER: Ha!-Ha! Alright, but really now, why does Tortilla Flat rate so high with you?

McCARTHY: Because in watching it - or even just discussing it - I get a kind of contact high. I mean, they drink AN AWFUL LOT of wine in this movie! But beyond that, it's simply a wonderful production of a truly funny and heartwarming story. Also, one of the prime examples of how some of those marvelous character actors of yesteryear could sometimes steal a picture right out from under the stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

INTERVIEWER: The stars in this case being Spencer Tracy and John Garfield?

McCARTHY: Right. And Hedy Lamarr is the high candy. Excuse me - EYE candy. Lamarr plays Dolores "Sweets" Ramirez, the Paisano girl who drives young, headstrong Danny insane with desire. The virile Danny is portrayed by Garfield. When he unexpectedly inherits two houses in Tortilla Flat, it sets off a whole chain reaction of events that soon threaten to dissolve his old friendships and undermine the sway that the cunning and manipulative Pilon - played by Tracy - holds over him. Soon, Pilon and "Sweets" are engaged in a power stwuggle - uhm, STRUGGLE - for influence with Danny, while his oddball collection of loafing friends shpend their days trying to devise new ways of acquiring more wine ... short of working for a paycheck, that is. It's fabulous fun!

INTERVIEWER Some viewers have expressed dissatisfaction with how the story deviates somewhat from Steinbeck's book.

McCARTHY: Sure, but what some people fail to realize is that novels and movies are two separate mediums and each has its own requirements - a certain form that must be adhered to generally in order to successfully relate a story. A novel has plenty of time to unfold, but a movie has 90 to 120 minutes in which to tell its tale vishually. Uhm, visually. You don't build a house like a boat and you don't build a boat like a housh. House. A film demands a centwal conflict, and the third wheel "love twiangle" - which occupies only a small segment of Steinbeck's novel - becomes the catalysht ... catalysht ... [hic!] ... becomes the thing that dwives the film. I think it was beautifully adapted to the big shcreen, retaining all of the charm and the overall tone of the novel. And in shome ways, the movie is even better than the book!

INTERVIEWER: But in the book, Danny--

McCARTHY: Yeah, Danny dies! How fun is that? And "Sweets" Ramirez is descwibed as "not pretty. Her voice is shwill ... shrill. Her face is hard and sharp as a hatchet, and her figure ish lumpy." Who wants to shee a lumpy woman? Huh? Tortilla Frat was directed by Victor Fleming. He diwec ... he directed GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, too; he knew what he wash doing! Steinbeck wrote: "What ish a Paisano? He is a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexshican and assorted Caucasian bloods. He speaks English with a Paisano accent, and Spanish wish a Paisano accent." I don't know what shortta accent Spensher Tracy was doing, but it's loushy. But you get ushed to it after awhile.

INTERVIEWER: Stephen, you mentioned the character actors.

McCARTHY: They're mahvelous! Shtupendous! They practically shteal the show! John Qualen as skinny Jos[hic!] ... Jose Maria. And Akim Tamiroff as big, dumb Pablo. And Allen Jenkins ash Portagee Joe, who fallsh asleep everywhere. Sheldon Leonard as the jailer who breaks out of hish own jail. And eshpecially the great, great theshpian, Frank Morgan - he was the wizard in THE WI[hic!]ZARD OF OZ. He playsh Pirate, the old man with a long beard who lovesh hish dogs. Hish dogs are "good boys." There's Enrique, and Paja[hic!]rito, and Fluff - he's a pug. And Senor Alec Thompson, whosh a kind of an Airedale. And Rudolph - he ish "an American dog." And Portagee Joe stealsh the money, but they get it back an' dwink wine, an' the dogs go to church, an' Pilon cuts shquids, an' Danny buysh a vacuum cleaner, an' they shing bawdy [hic!] shongs about Arabella Gross an' Missush Morallush when they dwink wine. An' Shaint Franshish of Ashishi ish in the twees, an'--

DIRECTOR: Cut! Cut! Look, somebody get some hot coffee into him. Meanwhile, we'll get our establishing shot taken care of, and do some pickup shots, and maybe by then Stephen will be sober enough to complete the interview. ... Why, oh why? And to think that I could be directing MTV videos for Rock stars. Tons of money, scantily dressed women, and all the Dom Perignon I can drink! Instead, I take THIS gig and my career goes tortilla flat.

Movie Review: Tortilla flat: Completely Changed
Summary: 2 Stars

Over last summer, I read Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. On Saturday, October 1, 2005, I watched the movie Tortilla Flat starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, and John Garfield and directed by Victor Fleming. While I watched the movie, I was confused. I wondered why Victor Fleming seemingly scrapped half the book and added a knew ending to the story. Victor could have called it "Tortilla Flat's beginning, and then whatever I feel like doing." Not only that, but he focused in on a character mentioned in only a few pages in the book, and made her the supporting actress of the movie. The movie completely changes the book, and is not nearly as good.
When I first read Tortilla Flat, I thought it was strange and intriguing. It is based on the lives of a group of vagrant mixes of California's original Hispanic settlers and the newly arriving ones and takes place on the central coast of California. Danny and his friends are living on the streets, but then Danny inherits two houses from his grandfather. At first, the group continues with their bad ways. One of Danny's friends cheats him out of his fair rent for one of his houses, and ends up wasting his money on himself. This continues for a while, until one night, the house that Danny's renting burns down when Danny's friends forget to put out a candle. (It also was the will of the saints that frequent the book). Then, Danny's friends decide to become real friends, and give up their bad ways for better ones. They become somewhat like robin hood and his band of merry men.
The movie's storyline is extremely different. In the beginning, it's the same, but when the house burns down, Danny's friends don't change their bad ways. A person they helped to live a better life in the book is a target for thieving in the movie, until they find out that he promised his money to a saint. Also, Sweets Dolores, a character mentioned only as a part of a brief adventure where Danny's friends help him overcome difficulties in the book, is the person Danny falls in love with in the movie. Also, the ending is totally changed. In the book, the characters have to overcome great grief and still do the right thing, but the movie has a fairy tale ending with everyone happy.
The question arises, "Why did they change the movie so much?" The answer is quite simple, and equally foolish. The people writing the script thought that if there was a tragedy in the end like in the book, people wouldn't want to see the movie. I think that idea is completely wrong. It usually makes a movie better if the ending is realistic. There's also a reason why they spent so much time on Sweets Delores: sex appeal and a love interest. They needed a sexy girl in the movie, so that there was some eye candy; and they needed love interest so that a larger audience would be attracted to the movie. They shouldn't have totally changed the book. Although they had to shorten the book for the movie, they should've at least included some more of the adventures, and kept its ending.
I believe that the book is better then the movie. It's deeper, showing the change in Danny and his friends from bums to heroes of their community. It's more interesting, showing the many exploits of Danny and his friends. It's more touching, going through tragedy and happiness, rather then having a fairy-tale ending. It's better written and more interesting, rather then being totally predictable. It's, of course, more descriptive, because no movie can match a book in that category.
To summarize this review in a few words, I'd have to say that the movie Tortilla Flat butchers the book and turns it into a new creation that goes by the same name. John Steinbeck would be angry at this movie.

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