Tiger Shark

Had the bizarre fishing-village-set TIGER SHARK come out ten years later, it would've made a pretty intriguing Film Noir, following the trope of the pretty young girl marrying an older businessman while falling in love with the handsome younger fella who has no money, and is friends with the rich guy...

In this case that rich guy, before there was any money and when he had both hands... during the more adventuresome Hemingway-meets-Melville first act... saves the life of Richard Arlen as common fisherman Pipes Boley by losing one hand to the titular (yet thereafter unimportant) TIGER SHARK, later replaced with a hook...

Making Edward G. Robinson more a gentleman dandy than the pirate he'd seem... and his only real handicap is baby-faced ingenue Zita Johann, feeling no chemistry with Robinson's Mike Mascarenhas as a husband, leading to when and how he'll discover where her love is going...

Which does genuinely provide the short/stout firebrand the kind of dangerous potential for the audience to anticipate his inevitable explosion...

But too much time's spent on the searing romantic triangle when an actor like Robinson needed and deserved more of an edgy potboiler than this morality play programmer.

All the old-time Hollywood studios recycled their scripts, turning previously-filmed properties into remakes and then re-remakes. More so than any other studio, Warner Brothers were notorious for re-re-re-remaking their previous films with only very slight changes in setting and dialogue. "Tiger Shark" is an historically significant film, as this movie provided the original template for a plot line which Warners recycled about two dozen times ... each time with just enough changes to fool the audience into thinking they were seeing an original plot. Except for stories which are in the public domain (such as Cinderella), "Tiger Shark" holds the all-time record for being re-made MORE OFTEN than any other movie ... each remake being "disguised" as a new movie.

The basic plot is this: an older man with a physical handicap falls in love with an attractive young woman who owes him a favour. She marries him, more out of a sense of obligation than for love. Then she becomes attracted to a handsome young man who works alongside her handicapped husband. The young man returns her attraction, and they start having an affair. The husband discovers his wife's infidelity, and then (in the climax of the film) he and the younger man duke it out. That's the plot of "Tiger Shark", starring Edward G. Robinson, and it's also the plot of two dozen other Warners films which are uncredited remakes of "Tiger Shark".

Compare this film to "Manpower" (1941), also starring Robinson. In "Tiger Shark" he plays a one-handed fisherman, with a hook at the end of his left arm. In "Manpower" he plays an electrical lineman with a limp. In both films, his love interest is a younger woman with a European accent: Zita Johann here, Marlene Dietrich in "Manpower". Robinson's younger rival in "Tiger Shark" (played by Richard Arlen) is basically the same character as Robinson's rival in "Manpower" (George Raft). The climax of "Tiger Shark" is a fight on the seashore; the climax of "Manpower" is a fistfight at the top of a telephone pole during a lightning storm. Once you allow for the change of setting, they're both the same film. I could make the same connections between "Tiger Shark" and about two dozen other Warners films, not all of them starring Robinson.

"Tiger Shark" benefits from some excellent direction by Howard Hawks. Richard Arlen is unfairly forgotten nowadays, but he was the closest thing Hollywood had to Harrison Ford before Harrison Ford came along. (I'm referring of course to the modern Harrison Ford, not the silent-film actor of the same name.) Arlen gives a good performance here. Zita Johann is excellent here, hampered only by her thick accent. She retired early from films to marry the producer John Houseman, long before Houseman became an Oscar-winning actor. Johann's most famous role is the female lead in "The Mummy" opposite Boris Karloff. When Johann published her autobiography in the 1980s, the publishers' promo material played up the fact that Johann had co-starred with Karloff, but they managed to avoid mentioning *which* Karloff film she'd been in: apparently they were afraid we would think that Zita Johann was a "scream queen" actress who only starred in horror films.

I'll rate "Tiger Shark" 7 out of 10 on its own merits, or 9 points if you're an aspiring screenwriter who wants to study this film so you can learn how a single plot line can be reworked repeatedly.

Sorry, I forgot to add a point to my comment that was rather an important one, at least to me. Tiger Shark was shot in the early 1930s and there are some interesting scenes of men sailing their boat into a school of tuna, guided by a lookout, then lining up in the leads and pulling the fish in using flexible poles, one at a time. The scenes are authentic and exciting. Alas, they are history. Tuna fisherman now use "long lines." (Koreans and Japanese have huge industries built around this technique.) The fishing boat now needs a smaller crew (less expensive) because there no longer any mano a mano contests between fish and man. The crew simply strings out long fishing lines, guided by sonar, more than a mile long, with baited hooks fixed to the lines at short, regular intervals, set for a given depth. This has proved far more lucrative than fishing exclusively for tuna with poles. The long lines have a tendency to clean everything that swims out of the sea; not just tuna but sharks, sea turtles, porpoises, and game fish like marlin (which can't be legally sold). By the time they are harvested, many of the animals are already dead, especially the air-breathing turtles and porpoises. The industry has become much more efficient and without passion. Mike probably wouldn't have approved but the organization that would now own his boat would have.

The plot of this film is nothing to write home about. Other reviewers have aptly summed it up as the quintessential love triangle. There are two things that make this film rise above 4 or 5 stars out of ten.

The first is the great footage of commercial fishing as it was practiced circa 1930. It really was man versus the sea back in those days. There is also some footage of how the fish is delivered and then processed once the fishing boat docks.

The second thing that makes this an interesting film is the odd combination of Edward G. Robinson on the way up, Richard Arlen on the way down, and Zita Johann in one of her few film appearances before she shrugged her shoulders and walked away from film after she decided she didn't need all the irritation she had to deal with as a Hollywood star.

Edward G. Robinson was a newcomer to talking films, having only one credited film appearance in silents, that being in 1916. Not a classicly good-looking man, he was fascinating to watch in almost any role because of his talent for drama as well as comedy. Richard Arlen was a great leading man over at Paramount, and even retained his position at that studio for a few years after sound came in. He had the looks, he had the voice, but his popularity fizzled nonetheless. Zita Johann does not have, as others have mentioned, a thick accent. Her diction is perfect, and she has exotic looks that can only be compared to Kay Francis.

Thus these three are thrown together in this film in exactly the way you'd believe them to be. Robinson as the likable fisherman, Mike, with a big heart who can't get a girl to love him because he is missing a hand that was taken by a shark. Zita Johann is the daughter of a fisherman on Mike's boat who falls overboard and is killed by a shark. Mike nurses her back to health - she is ill at the time her father dies - and takes care of her in general so that she feels beholden to marry him, plus she thinks she is through with love and feels that Mike will do as well as any man. Finally there is Arlen as Pipes, handsome friend of Mike. He and Mike's new wife fall in love but do not want to hurt someone that they feel has been very good to them.

There are two big problems with this plot. In execution, the problem is that we don't see any relationship build between Mike's wife and Pipes. She just announces to Pipes one night that she loves him and that is that. I realize there is not much room for character development in a 75 minute film, but they could have let this build a little bit. In concept, the whole fact that someone as likable as Mike would not be able to attract a woman just because he is missing a hand is a bit much. Women have not now nor have they ever been attracted to men just because of looks. Character counts a good deal more. This is a case of a man writing about women as though they were men.

In summary, if you run across this one it is always worthwhile to see Edward G. Robinson in action, but don't lose any sleep if it never comes your way.

This is a fine little movie from the 1930s. Anchored by a rather outrageous performance from Edward G. Robinson, it's the story of two men in love with the same woman set to the backdrop of the tuna fishing industry out of San Diego. It's perhaps too short, but it effectively uses its time to tell its story well enough.

Mike Mascarenhas (Robinson) is the captain and owner of a fishing boat who lost his hand to a tiger shark when he was lost at sea, and he has incredible trouble with women. None seem to want anything to do with him despite his ownership of a successful fishing outfit that regularly brings in tens of thousands of dollars a year to himself and employs at least a dozen men. His thick Portuguese accent, constant bragging, and overbearing personality probably have something to do with it, but he's also a short, not terribly attractive man to boot, especially when compared to his first mate, Pipes played by Richard Arlen. Their first scene is Mike approaching Pipes and his new girl, talking about the girl that Mike had spoken to the night before who he hasn't heard from since. Pipes's girl reveals that Mike's girl had gotten away as fast as she could, despite whatever Mike was bragging about that morning. Pipes, being a good friend and first mate, ends up protecting Mike's reputation and feelings with another crewmate, Fishbone, tries to rag on Mike for being unsuccessful with the ladies.

On their trip out, a crewman, Manuel Silva, falls into the water and gets half eaten by a tiger shark, dying in the process. One of the most interesting things about this film is the clear-eyed view it has on the fishing industry. It's almost a documentary of the efforts men went to bring tuna back to American markets, and one of the most striking moments is when Mike demands that his crew catch that shark to cut it open and return Manuel's legs to him. Manuel is going to face St. Peter whole, Mike decides, and we watch them catch the shark and even beat it to death while it's on the hook. This film does not look away from this industry and the men who made it work.

Mike, being a good captain, takes Manuel's possessions to Manuel's daughter, Quita played by Zita Johann. Quita is a young, attractive woman with no means of support anymore, so Mike becomes instantly smitten and supports her financially to the point where he proposes to her. She's cautious though because, as she admits to him fully before she makes any response, she does not love him and is unsure if she ever will. That's important. He insists that she will grow to love him, and they get married in a big elaborate ceremony thrown at the last minute that ends with Mike getting too drunk, falling asleep, and Quita left to clean up after the party. There's never going to be love here.

Time goes on, Mike's business becomes less successful, and in the few days that Mike is in port, Pipes and Quita begin to get to know each other. This is not unpredictable stuff, but they begin to fall in love. Pipes is loyal to Mike and doesn't want to hurt him, though, so instead of following through on his passions, he decides that he needs to simply leave Mike's company and join a cargo ship instead of Mike's fishing vessel. However, an injury while pulling fish from the sea, a hook grabbing him by the neck, puts him out of commission, sending Mike back to port to help Pipes recuperate at Quita's hand. This is where the romance between the two becomes undeniable to both Quita and Pipes, with Mike still completely blind to the reality of it.

Quita decides to go out on the next fishing expedition, and Mike is happy to have her along while Pipes keeps his concern quiet. On the trip, obviously, Pipes and Quita cannot keep themselves from each other, finally succumbing to a physical manifestation of their affection (a kiss) only to have Mike witness it. In his rage, Mike locks in the rest of the crew, knocks Pipes out, throws him into a boat, and forces a leak with tiger sharks all around. Mike let his better side out, and he saves Pipes from the trap that he set himself, only to get attacked by the shark instead.

One smaller problem I have with this movie is the length of Mike's death scene. It's one of those Hollywood deaths where the character speaks plainly but somewhat breathlessly for as long as it takes to get all of his thoughts out. It ends up feeling artificial no matter what he says, and what he says in this particular instance ends up feeling a bit too generous. It's not really the wrong note if he thinks he's going to die and his best friend and wife are truly in love, but there's no anger from a character prone to outbursts, just simple acquiescence. It feels a bit off.

I should take a moment to highlight Zita Johann, though. Mike is the actual center of this movie, but I think one of the reasons that this movie works as well as it does is Zita. She's a strong woman who knows what she wants, and it's not Mike. She also knows that she's trapped into abject poverty if she doesn't take up his offer. She appreciates Mike for everything he does for her, but it hurts her that she simply does not love him. Zita's performance is the real anchor for the whole film, giving pathos to the film's final moments where Mike's death misses a bit.

Still, as a simple tale of a love triangle involving two professional friends, it's solid. As a look at an unusual and tough industry, it's fascinating. It's a little movie in Howard Hawks' career that's been pretty much forgotten entirely, but it's worth checking out.