mark.waltz Harlow's a big hearted working class same who is employed at a fish cannery. Tracy's an aggressive strike breaker, often at odds with Harlow who nearly knocks his block off with a flying mackerel. He is publicly humiliated by her, but secretly they are crazy about each other. The only thing that stands in their way (besides his arrogance and her feistiness) is waterfront organized criminal leader Leo Carrillo. In spite of that, Spencer and Jean make it to the altar, but the road to happiness and security won't be easy thanks to their hot tempers.Fighting only minutes after they tie the knot, Tracy and Harlow are a delight, and this slice of life drama with many comic moments is extremely enjoyable. There's also Una Merkel and Mickey Rooney as her siblings, and it's obvious that Mickey was destined for stardom. Harlow's platinum hair is a bit darker here, yet she's extremely lovely. She gets above the title billing and he's under the titles, but it's obvious that they are equal in talent. This takes on some serious social issues among the taming of the shrew subplot, with waterfront boss Carrillo gregarious but ruthless, a sore loser over Tracy getting Harlow. The comic first half smoothly moves to social drama in the second half, yet the mood is not jarring. A musical moment featuring "You are my Lucky Star" which leads into a sudden burst of fireworks (thanks to the pranksterish Rooney) is one of the great single sequences, with the shot of Mickey with firecrackers in his ears edited into "Babes in Arms". Even lacking the MGM gloss as it emulates a Warner Brothers film, this is an exceptional A film that deserves to be more well remembered.

MartinHafer In many ways, this is a bit like a Popeye cartoon with live actors. No, there's no spinach and super-strength, but the characters do seem a lot like these cartoons--and with about as much depth! This is especially true of Dutch (Spencer Tracy)...a guy who seems a lot like Popeye AND Bluto put together! All he seems to like to do is fight, yell and act tough. He's also a complete know-it-all who NEVER is willing to back down when problems arise. A multidimensional performance, it is NOT!Dutch hates the guy in charge of the fishing fleet and spends much of his energy fighting with the guy. He also, inexplicably, has a girl that loves him...though he's about as tender and likable as a seasick hippo! Despite showing no tenderness towards her (or anyone), Hattie (Jean Harlow) is in love with him and eventually they marry. Now he doesn't exactly ask her...they have a fight and in the next scene they are married! None of this makes any sense, by the way!Soon after the wedding, Dutch is made the head of the fishermen's union and his pig-headed attitude does not serve him or his men well. Soon, he's voted out and he's jobless--none of which would have happened if he hadn't been a bit of a jerk. What's next for him and his unlucky wife? See the film...or don't!This is among the worst characters Spencer Tracy ever played because the character had zero depth and is just annoying. The only worse role might be in "Tortilla Flat"....which was also painfully bad and completely unrealistic. Perhaps an actor like Wallace Beery could have played Dutch better. All I know is that he was terrible...and much of it was due to miscasting and much was due to the poor writing for his character. Because of all this, the audience naturally HATES Dutch...so when bad things happen you simply don't care. I know I sure disliked him...intensely!As far as the rest of the film goes, it's not especially good. It's a weepy melodrama and I found none of it enjoyable or engaging. A rare misfire for Tracy and Harlow....but clearly among their worst films.By the way, in many ways the plot in this film is similar to an earlier Harlow film, "Hold on to Your Man". It's not particularly good and in it she also plays a long-suffering wife who marries a complete jerk.

vincentlynch-moonoi There's a certain time in the late 1930s when, in my view, movies come of age. This film does have some substance, although it is not quite of that very slightly later Hollywood when films became "modern". And, the same can be said of Spencer Tracy (one of my two favorite actors; the other being Cary Grant). This was the film just before his breakout role in "Fury" and a series of truly impressive starring roles. This is the Tracy that seemed to feel he had to yell to make a point (or was that the direction he was receiving?). He hadn't quite learned what I'll refer to as simmering-subtlety. Nevertheless, Tracy has his moments in this film.Jean Harlow is impressive, even without her platinum blond hair. You'll recognize quite a few of the supporting actors (including Una Merkel and a young Mickey Rooney). I was interested to see Joseph Calleia as the bad guy here...a common role for him at the time, although I remember him best as the papa from the Martin & Lewis film "The Caddy" more than a dozen years later. Although not a large role, there's a strong performance by supporting actor J. Farrell MacDonald (if you watch old movies, you'll recognize him, although you probably never knew his name).The portion of the film that is most interesting is about midway through. After we learn that the major characters are sort of low class yellers, and after Tracy and Harlow split, it's the scene at the hobo camp that brought real substance to the movie...quite touching. And speaking of the hobo camp, it's a reminder that this film was made right in the middle of the Great Depression, and its depiction of labor unions is quite impressive. But then the film once again sinks into that pre-GWTW immaturity that I spoke of earlier. Harlow steals money from the bad guy to help Tracy, gets caught, goes to womens' prison, escapes through a drain pipe in the middle of a thunderstorm, at about the same time that the poor night watchman at a dock (Tracy) saves the union workers' jobs by foiling a sabotage attempt (why was there such an attempt by hobos???). Yes, it gets kinda dumb, and oh, I forgot to mention that while in prison, Harlow has a baby which nobody tells Tracy about. And believe it or not, despite Harlow breaking out of prison, they all live happily ever after. Dumb, dumb, dumb...but somewhat entertaining!

kyle_furr The main problem i had with the film is the screenplay. It was just badly written and you didn't believe a lot of the things the characters did. The plot really doesn't come together like it should and the movie is just pretty bad. It stars out with Spencer Tracy talking some workers out of a strike that would of hurt them and he also p***es off his boss. Both Tracy and the boss are interested in Jean Harlow but Harlow only goes with the boss because, i just forget and who really cares anyway. Mickey Rooney is also in here and Spencer Tracy is a great actor but he's only OK in here. Jean Harlow does a pretty good job and you should watch Libeled Lady instead.