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Man's Castle

Director: Frank Borzage
Year: 1933
Run-time: 1 hr 6 min
Source: Youtube

- This is, I think, the last Borzage film on the list.  It sticks with the general theme of a romance under assault from the world.  However, the Spencer Tracy character breaks the general archetype, straining the limits of the audience's sympathy with the way he treats his doting lover in a way that a modern audience would find uncomfortable, but he does mostly redeem himself in the end.  In a way, the tension between the Borzage melodramatic style and Tracy's wit and shenanigans make this film more "accessible" than Borzage's earlier work.

- However, audiences didn't seem to think so.  This wasn't Tracy's breakout role, although he had been slowly gaining traction for a few years.  Loretta Young is in my opinion the real star here.  The way that she devotes herself to the hardened Spencer Tracy could come off as weak in a lesser actress, but I think Young pulls it off in a way that makes it clear she's trying to better her own life in the only way she knows how.

- The way that Young controls her expressions reminded me perversely of Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I would love to see an interview about the old actresses that inspired Curry's performance, as anyone watching him sing "Whatever happened...to Fay Wray?" knows how indebted the whole production is to the golden age of movies.
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