The Old Man And The Sea

Despite his always dignified presence, Spencer Tracy, the paradigmatic 1950s white collar (sub)urbanite, is miscast as a Cuban fisherman in this version of Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 Pulitzer Prize winning novella about a lonely old fisherman trying to get back home with the catch of a lifetime.  With the subject matter not having a lot of dramatic potential why anyone thought it a good idea to turn it into a film is a mystery.  Indeed Tracy’s presence could not save the film which bombed at the box office.

Sturges, who took over from Fred Zinnemann, was best known for his action-oriented films but despite filming at sea he is unable to do anything with the essentially reflective material (ironically, the film went over-budget in trying to do so). It wasn’t helped by the fact that a studio prop fish had to be used and the visuals shift from location shooting to back-projected studio tank are jarring. On the upside, the cinematography by James Wong Howe and Floyd Crosby is excellent whilst Dimitri Tiomkin's score won an Oscar.

 

Want something different?