I've always been in two minds about this film from the first time I saw it, since it casts (or miscasts) three of Hollywood's brightest stars of the day (Spencer Tracy, John Garfield, and Hedy Lamarr) as poor Mexican immigrants living in Monterey on the California Coast -- that's some colossal miscasting for starters, even if one fondly accepts Tracy's Portuguese fisherman in "Captains Courageous". However there are enough other pleasures to make this movie a worthwhile experience.
Based on the John Steinbeck novel, Tracy is a lazy and somewhat venal rogue whose favourite pastime is drinking with his equally shiftless pals Akim Tamiroff and John Qualen. Garfield is another hot-tempered ne'er-do-well who has just inherited two houses (more like shacks) and who is enamoured of Lamarr's fish factory worker. That such iconic actors are able to more or less inhabit these downbeat roles is something of a miracle. However the picture is stolen from under their noses by Frank Morgan, playing a hermit who lives only for his "boys" -- a ragtag group of dogs including possibly Toto (or a dead ringer) from the "Wizard of Oz". He is saving the money that he earns from collecting firewood -- about two bits a day -- to buy a golden candlestick for St. Francis whom he credits with saving the life of one of his mutts. Tracy initially plans to steal his savings and invites Morgan to move in with the group at the remaining Garfield house (the other having been carelessly burnt down), but is soon won over by Morgan's naive charm. There follows two lovely scenes with Morgan garbed for church in the friends' various clothing to see his candlestick dedicated (with the dogs bursting in during the service) and then alone in the woods with his "boys" where they all experience a religious visitation. The latter is remarkable and memorable in its simplicity.
There's a lot more action including Tracy actually taking a job without wanting anyone to know about it in order to righten things between Garfield and Lamarr, before shifting back at the end of the tale to his preferred carefree indigence. I guess the truth of the matter is that I have a lot of time for Tracy, even when cast in such an unlikely and to some extent hard-to-take role.
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