The Old Man and the Sea *** (1958, Spencer Tracy, Felipe Pazos, Harry Bellaver) – Classic Movie Review 9995

Director John Sturges’s 1958 adventure drama The Old Man and the Sea stars Spencer Tracy, who sailed into Best Actor Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his portrait of The Old Man, the Ernest Hemingway seaman hero, a lifelong fisherman who fantasises about catching the big fish.

Though set-bound and slow moving, Sturges’s earnest film of Ernest Hemingway’s barely filmable story is made very watchable by the fine performances, Dimitri Tiomkin’s stirring music, James Wong Howe’s crisp Technicolor cinematography and Sturges’s competent direction. Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his score, and James Wong Howe was Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography, Color.

The underwater photography is by Lamar Boren. Henry King and Fred Zinnemann were uncredited directors.

There was later a TV movie version with Anthony Quinn in 1990.

Also in the cast are Felipe Pazos as The Boy, Harry Bellaver as The Cafe Owner, Donald Diamond, Don Blackman, Joey Ray, Richard Alameda, Tony Rosa, Carlos Rivero, Robert Alderette, Mauritz Hugo, Don Alvarado and Mary Hemingway.

It was filmed at Warner Bros studio sound stage water tank in Burbank, built in the 1930s, but re-excavated and expanded from 8 feet to 22 feet deep for The Perfect Storm in 2000.

The Seventh Cross starring Spencer Tracy was Fred Zinnemann’s first big-budget film. Tracy and Zinnemann admired each other but did not get on too well. However, Zinnemann was set to direct Tracy in The Old Man and the Sea, but they fell out over Zinnemann’s plan to make most of the film at sea in a fishing boat. Zinnemann began filming second-unit footage of the ocean and of fish with cameraman Floyd Crosby but then quit the movie, though some of his footage is in the film.

Tracy flew from Los Angeles to Cuba to meet Ernest Hemingway and get his approval.

Spencer Tracy movies include Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike, Inherit the Wind, Father of the Bride, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Bad Day at Black Rock.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9995

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