Tiger Shark

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.

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.

Edward G. Robinson plays a one handed fisherman making his living on the California coast. Even with a hook for a left hand he does pretty good in his line of work. But that steel hook isn't exactly quail bait.

One of his crew is lost to the sharks during a voyage and he brings the news home to his daughter Zita Johann. She's back home after having run away from the fishing life and has had a pretty rough go of it.

Though she doesn't love him, Johann marries Robinson and then another Robinson's crew, Richard Arlen comes in to complicate things.

Other reviewers have mentioned the gazillion times Warner Brothers recycled the plot of Tiger Shark in other locales. But actually Robinson had done a version of They Knew What They Wanted back in 1930 entitled A Lady to Love. That's the real origin of this plot.

The fishing boat scenes are realistically handled and the principal players do a good job. But this story has been told better and told better by Mr. Robinson himself.

How many times has this plot been used? The older guy--hearty, well-liked, a good man--wins the pretty young thing, but she's attracted to his best friend. It's like "They Knew What They Wanted," with Edward G. Robinson changing Charles Laughton's Italian accent to Portuguese and becoming an ace fisherman instead of a vintner. He's wonderful, in a showy yet subtle performance, and the beautiful Zita Johann is a prize worth fighting for. The writing isn't wonderful, though--we never understand why this lying blowhard is so popular, and the third side of the triangle, Richard Arlen, is given no personality at all. Howard Hawks must have liked the maritime setting, or just being on a boat, because there are yards of irrelevant footage of tuna fishing, leading to a climax that's not very clearly edited (just how does Arlen get out of this, and why does Eddie G. do such a turnaround?). But it leads to a moving big finale. It's atmospheric, with lots of outdoors shooting that makes it seem less studio-bound, and Robinson is always worth watching.

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.