Racketeer Goff extorts money from small boat owners like Jonah and Olaf, while romancing Jonah's daughter! With an equation like this, something's got to give.
The movie's very much a product of the leftish 1930's. Note the way it lavishes praise on "ordinary" people, and how happiness is seen as coming to accept one's own ordinariness. Note also the words the vicious Goff is made to say— phrases like "superior people" and "only the strong" surviving. Clearly, Goff amounts to an enemy of ordinary people, and on the eve of WWII, that amounts to a stand-in for fascism. In fact, the movie itself amounts to an allegory of a fascist movement (Goff) that by 1941 had conquered much of Europe, holding its ordinary people either in thrall (Stella) or in fear (Jonah & Olaf).
Now, there's nothing wrong with a sub-text like this, except the movie's pretty stagey (a single sound-stage set) and the characters one-dimensional, likely an unfortunate result of the allegorical sub-text. Anyway, there are helpful deposits of humor from the Jewish characters that apparently retains some flavor of the original play. However, the screenplay really cops out by having "God", instead of Goff's victims, take care of the oppressor. In fact, Olaf is made so meek and submissive he's almost craven and unworthy of his dreams. But, I suspect the writers were up against a Production Code that would insist on punishing the two fishermen had they gone through with their plan. Thus God is called in to do the job instead. To me, however, carrying through the plan would have shown that the oppressed can rise up and free themselves without metaphysical assistance, a valuable lesson, I believe, Code or no Code.
All in all, the film remains very much a Hollywood adaptation of a much grittier New York play (IMDB Trivia), and a disappointment considering the talent involved.
The movie's very much a product of the leftish 1930's. Note the way it lavishes praise on "ordinary" people, and how happiness is seen as coming to accept one's own ordinariness. Note also the words the vicious Goff is made to say— phrases like "superior people" and "only the strong" surviving. Clearly, Goff amounts to an enemy of ordinary people, and on the eve of WWII, that amounts to a stand-in for fascism. In fact, the movie itself amounts to an allegory of a fascist movement (Goff) that by 1941 had conquered much of Europe, holding its ordinary people either in thrall (Stella) or in fear (Jonah & Olaf).
Now, there's nothing wrong with a sub-text like this, except the movie's pretty stagey (a single sound-stage set) and the characters one-dimensional, likely an unfortunate result of the allegorical sub-text. Anyway, there are helpful deposits of humor from the Jewish characters that apparently retains some flavor of the original play. However, the screenplay really cops out by having "God", instead of Goff's victims, take care of the oppressor. In fact, Olaf is made so meek and submissive he's almost craven and unworthy of his dreams. But, I suspect the writers were up against a Production Code that would insist on punishing the two fishermen had they gone through with their plan. Thus God is called in to do the job instead. To me, however, carrying through the plan would have shown that the oppressed can rise up and free themselves without metaphysical assistance, a valuable lesson, I believe, Code or no Code.
All in all, the film remains very much a Hollywood adaptation of a much grittier New York play (IMDB Trivia), and a disappointment considering the talent involved.