OVP: Tortilla Flat (1942)

Film: Tortilla Flat (1942)

Stars: Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff

Director: Victor Fleming

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actor-Frank Morgan)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

The concept of an "art film" has changed dramatically throughout film history.  Film historians differ about the definition of what an art film is, and it's a loose term, but by-and-large what we think of an art film as today is some variation on both its funding (usually they are independent movies), and frequently are told in a nonlinear or atypical fashion.  Prominent modern filmmakers that come to mind with the term include Terrence Malick, Bong Joon-Ho, Lars von Trier, Jonathan Glazer, Kelly Reichardt, & Darren Aronofsky.  Classical Hollywood wasn't really focused on avant-garde or art films, and as a a result when sound was introduced into movies, most of what we might classify modern art films as didn't really exist, especially in the 1940's in studio system.  In Italy & France at the time they were experimenting with these ideas (think Children of Paradise, Open City, or Bicycle Thieves), and certainly Powell & Pressburger were achieving something similar to what would eventually be an art house film with Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes.  But even films like Brief Encounter which altered our expectations of what movie stars will look like or what we'd expect on a screen (by having actors that look like "ordinary people") still followed relatively conventional habits throughout the 1940's.  That being said, occasionally Hollywood will introduce some aspects (perhaps on purpose, perhaps considering the very conventional if talented director of this movie, by chance), and Tortilla Flat is a movie that reads as more "art house" to someone like me (who has seen a lot of major studio cinema of the 1940's) than I'm used to getting from a place like MGM.

(Spoilers Ahead) Tortilla Flat is based on a novel by John Steinbeck and it's about a group of men, one of whom is named Danny (Garfield) inherits two houses in a poor California town.  This is a huge step up for he and his friends, principally Pilon (Tracy), who were basically homeless, and in Danny's case, in jail, prior to the movie starting.  They enjoy the trappings of this more comfortable lifestyle, with Pilon being a bit of a scoundrel (I don't know that I've ever seen Spencer Tracy, sturdy & solid American movie star, play a character who for large swaths of the film is a total jackass before Tortilla Flat).  Danny falls in love with a local girl named Dolores (Lamarr), who wants a steadier man than he is, but after an accident that nearly kills Danny (and in the novel by Steinbeck, does), they realize they were made for each other, in part due to Pilon praying to the statue of St. Francis.  The movie ends with both of Danny's houses having burned down, the first by accident, the second on purpose, and all of Danny's crew now back to where they started, but Danny, the best of them, having escaped & started a new life with his bride.

Okay, so that's what the movie is about on paper, but it's not remotely as conventional as that.  For starters, there's virtually no consistent conflict.  While there are arguments between Dolores & Danny especially, it doesn't seem to really be about anything, and though Garfield was a pretty big name at the time (and Danny is the most important character in the film's structure), he disappears for extended periods of the film.  It's hard to exactly describe, but Tortilla Flat defies convention by not really being about what it's showing at its center (the relationship between Danny & Dolores), but instead about a journey of faith from Pilon, and without saying it, him changing his morality (even though it's rarely remarked upon by characters other than a priest played by Henry O'Neil who is barely in the movie).

Perhaps the best illustration of how this is strange is Frank Morgan's character.  He plays a man named Pirate (not, in fact, a pirate no capitalization), who is a sweet old man who spends most of his time caring for a group of devoted dogs (one of which worked with Fleming in a different, more famous film, where she was called Toto).  Pilon expects that Pirate is hiding money in the woods, and tries to trick him out of the money, but in a twist for the film, Pilon is right-Pirate is sitting on a gold mine in the woods, but he intends on using all of his money to buy a candlestick for St. Francis because he prayed to him once to save a favorite dog (who then lived).  After this happens, Pirate has an epiphany & shows the dogs what appears to be a religious vision of St. Francis in the woods, as a thank you for the new candlestick.  It's as weird as it sounds...this is such an odd plot in a film from a studio not known for risks, and with very conventional leading stars.  I struggle to know how to rate Tortilla Flat in part because I don't know what it's about, because it's basically about nothing (and it's not good at that), but it's a film I'd recommend if you are into curiosities like this, and Morgan is good in this role-this is a strange Oscar nomination, but not an unworthy one.