Spencer Tracy, Captains Courageous

as MANUEL

Won: Academy Award - Best Actor

Sometimes first impressions tell you everything you need to know. When we first meet Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous, he is sitting in a little fishing boat out in the middle of the ocean screaming "OOOH! OOOH!" because he's imitating a ship's fog horn. So in that moment when I realized I was watching a grown man do an impression of a ship instead of out at the local college bar drinking dollar beers, I rolled my eyes, laid back, and cursed my obsessively completist mentality regarding these Oscar-nominated performances. Because without it I certainly would have no reason to watch Captains Courageous, which is an amalgamation of a number of things I really don't like (a children's film, a child star, an all-male cast, a poorly acted ethnic role by an American actor, and a schmaltzy narrative).


Needless to say, the feelings I had towards Spencer Tracy when he first appears in this film doesn't change for the better. Because even if his Portuguese accent had been flawless instead of painfully wrong, what exactly is so winning about the role of Manuel? Character-wise, Manuel is likable. He's a kind-hearted paternal figure. Was the one-two punch of likability and ethnicity too much for voters to resist? If we're looking at external elements, there's the fact that Captains Courageous was one of the biggest box-office hits of 1937, and the fact that Tracy had lost the Best Actor prize the year before for his cameo in San Francisco. But I highly doubt Tracy had "overdue" status, especially seeing as he was billed second to Freddie Bartholomew for the film, suggesting that the child star was a bigger draw than Tracy was. Inside Oscar states that 1937 was the first year where thousands of Hollywood extras were allowed to vote for awards, so the only reasonable theory I have is that all these extras saw Captains Courageous, loved it, and thought, "Why the hell not?" and collectively tossed Tracy his first Oscar. It's an adequate enough effort, not nearly as terrible as other poorly done ethnic performances I've seen, but I just don't think Manuel is an interesting enough role or performance to warrant a Best Actor prize. Manuel is a terribly one-dimensional character used as nothing more than a tool to better Harvey's development. He has no angle--there's nothing that he wants, nor does he develop. I may have loved other performances despite a lack of character development, but this one irks me because there's not much to Tracy outside of being a loud racial caricature. And despite being the most punchable child film star I've seen this era, Freddie Bartholomew is the one with a much more interesting character, so if Hollywood had to recognize somebody from this film it ought to have been him. It's a little baffling that this was the second year in a row where Tracy got nominated for playing second-fiddle to somebody else. The accent is pretty spastic--often times he'll say something and it'll sound Mexican (or maybe Italian?) before suddenly falling back into an American accent. Most of the time Manuel is just irritating-he talks about fish (or as Tracy pronounces, feesh) at least a few times in most of his scenes, and he even talks to a goddamn fish before tossing it back into the sea. I suppose he gets some points for being more interesting and spirited instead his stale Father Mullin, and despite the confused ethnic jargon coming out of his mouth, he does a good job acting with his eyes. But this is far from a highlight for the Best Actor category. This is a borderline insensitive, trite, and The Blind Side-esque piece of work that's aged poorly and not nearly as imaginative as it aims to be.