Riffraff (1936)

Riffraff (1936), directed by J. Walter Ruben, 3 stars

"What's past is gone out and over and done with" – Nick Lewis

The above quote nicely sums up the recurring motif of this film, that is, that pretty much all sins are forgivable--provided one makes an earnest attempt to atone for them.  And sins aplenty occur during this emotionally-wrought tale of tuna workers exploited by their oily factory boss, Nick Lewis (Joseph Calleia).  One surmises that he must have changed his name since he speaks in a contrived form of pidgin English, no doubt intended by the screenwriters to inject humorous malaprops aplenty into the dialogue.  Nick is smitten by Hattie (Jean Harlow), and who wouldn't be?  She’s drop-dead gorgeous and alternatively sweet and sassy in inimitable Harlow style.  Hattie, on the other hand, is in love with “Dutch” Muller (Spencer Tracy), an egomaniacal tuna fisherman who works in Nick's factory.  However, Nick is so self-absorbed that he ignores her overtures. Instead, he occupies his time making reckless decisions that wind up wreaking increasing havoc not only on Hattie and his closest friends, but on the entire community dependent on the fishery for its livelihood.

But no matter how poorly perspicacious Dutch's decisions turn out to be, the movie makes a point of differentiating them from the ever-present 30s red menace that seeks to use Nicks’ exploitative business practices as an excuse for a socialist solution.  Communists are portrayed as either bat-wielding thugs or as arrogant highbrows who use the biggest words available when fewer syllables would carry the day.

The attraction that Dutch and Hattie display off and on for one another transcends the political environment that surrounds them in a way that could only work in a Hollywood film.  Initially, Dutch wants nothing to do with his fellow fishermen, who are on the verge of calling a strike that will most certainly lead to their being replaced by scabs.  He'd rather spend his time in a local tavern in the company of two lovely ladies.  But it takes only the slightest stroking of his ego by Hattie and others to nudge him into action: the delivery of a speech that leads to a huge brawl outside the cannery.  Despite the fact that Dutch and Hattie were at each other’s throats only moments before, she chooses to help him escape from the police by creating a distraction, wrapping a can of tuna in paper, flinging it into the melee, and crying “bomb.”  When she later congratulates him for averting the strike, he reacts violently, pushing her to the ground.  Hattie gets her revenge in short order by hurling a fish at him while reporters are filming an interview.  It hits him in the face, causing him to loses his balance and fall overboard into the water—all this while the cameras are rolling.  This row doesn't prevent them from marrying, becoming pregnant, having irreconcilable differences, and then divorcing, all in short order.  The attraction between the two lies in their studio star power, not in themselves and certainly not in their stars.

“Riffraff” was the second film Harlow made with Spencer Tracy in 1936, the other being the better known and better film, “Libeled Lady.”  Although sparks fly in this film, the sparkle just isn’t the same between the two as it is with Harlow and her other leading men.  I'm thinking especially of Clark Gable.  But other cast members do liven things up quite a bit.  Una Merkel as Lil, Hattie's sister, and Mickey Rooney as Jimmy, Lil's son provide plenty of fast-talking wisecracks as well as real help when it's needed.  Anita Loos, Frances Marion, and H.W. Hamemann were responsible for the snappy screenplay, which is filled with zingers, though the highlight for me are the conversations in broken English between Nick and Markis (George Givot), his lawyer, which I found simply hilarious.  This is neither Harlow’s or Tracy’s best effort by far, but it is an interesting if not a totally successful pairing of two of MGM’s big box-office sensations.