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.

whpratt1 Greatly enjoyed this story written by John Steinbeck and a great cast of veteran actors who all gave outstanding performances. Daniel Alvarez, (John Garfield) is a poor young man who pals around with a bunch of lazy men who never seem to work and love to eat and drink wine. Daniel inherits two homes that his grandfather left him and one of his friends, Pilon, (Spencer Tracy) decides to take advantage of him and brings in all his friends to live in one of the houses. There is a great deal of trying to steal chickens and also obtaining free wine from local female ladies. Daniel meets up with a very pretty woman named Dolores Ramirez, (Hedy Lamarr) and they both become very good friends and lovers. There is also a man named The Pirate, (Frank Morgan) who lives like a tramp, but has plenty of money hidden in the woods. The Pirate is trying to save money to buy a silver golden stick for the Statue of St. Franicis in the local Catholic Church. Pilon wants to steal this money from the Pirate and then he starts experiencing different changes in his personality which creates a great ending to this story. Enjoy.

theowinthrop There is no denying that the man who gave us THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN, and EAST OF EDEN is a major literary figure - one of the handful of American literary figures to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. But John Steinbeck was also a man of his time and some of his time is hard to swallow. This is particularly when dealing with his novels and stories dealing with Latin-Americans in California. A man raised in the early 20th Century, his views of Latinos is rather heavily into stereotypes. That he could develop character despite the stereotypes was a sign of his abilities as a fine writer...but those stereotypes remain as a stigma today.In TORTILLA FLAT Steinbeck looks at life among a set of Latinos in Salinas, California. The central figure is Pilon (Spencer Tracy) who is a happy - go - lucky type, without any interest in life but what pleasure (food, partying, girls, booze) he can get out of it. But he does not like to work. Nor do his pals Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), Tito (Sheldon Leonard), Jose (John Qualen), and Daniel (John Garfield). But then Daniel learns his uncle died and left him two houses. He suddenly changes a little (he is a property owner) but that is soon dented when Pilon reminds him they are pals and he owes them a share of his good fortune. Somewhat unsettled by this, he does agree to letting the four freeloaders use the other house. The wisdom of this action is shown when they gradually let the nice little house go to ruin, ending with them accidentally burning it down (Pilon just smiles and shrugs his shoulders at this).Meanwhile Daniel meets Dolores Ramirez (Hedy Lamarr), a young woman who works in the local fish cannery. Daniel starts changing his whole views on life by his desire to woo Dolores - she feels her husband has to be a hard working man to win her respect. But Pilon and the others resent this hold Dolores has on Daniel. Pilon in particular tries to break up the love affair, but only manages to make his friendship with Daniel get strained. Daniel now has a job too at the cannery, but the others are still gainfully unemployed. Pilon decides that he and the others can rob "the Pirate" (Frank Morgan) a lonely eccentric. The best scenes in the film deal with Morgan, who turns out to be a touching old man who loves his pets and is saving his money for a religious offering for them. I won't go into the rest of the plot (which shows that Pilon can be a real friend too when he wants to be). Again it is well acted, although Tracy is reusing his "Spanish" accent that he used as Manuel in CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS, and would use again in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. Lamarr and Garfield actually display some chemistry together to heat up their scenes. Garfield too is slightly reusing a previous accent - his "Porfirio Diaz" voice in JUAREZ toned down a little. Actually if it wasn't for the performances (particularly Morgan's) the film would only have the character development shown by Tracy and Garfield. But the weakness of the stereotypes makes this film a difficult one to swallow. So I can only give it a "7" out of "10".

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!