howardmorley I have rarely encountered such a Hollywood film so loaded with dreadful stereotypes as "Tortilla Flat".Those reviewers who lauded it must have been on a different planet or love film tripe of the lowest common denominator.Firstly according to some unenlightened producers, Hollywood had, at the time, a racist attitude to casting.There were either American/English actors or "Foreigners".If the cast called for "foreigners" no matter what the nationality of the character/actor, producers would cast a motley collection of actors from different countries and were not pedantic about the accuracy of the countries of origin of the actors concerned when consistency was required to make the characters believable.To cast Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr with her sophisticated Viennese accent, and the Jewish John Garfield as Mexican peasants was risible.Second stereotype - casting Mexican characters as a lazy work shy people who laze around in the sun and shun work but get drunk.Third stereotype - to insult the audience that they cannot be trusted to understand one sentence of Spanish.To just put the odd "amigo" or "adios" into the script to add a foreign sense but saying all their parts in English is rather patronising and a "cop-out".As an aside, enlightened producers like Darryl F. Zanuck who produced "The Longest Day" (1962) had German actors speaking German, French actors speaking French (with English subtitles) which made the film really come alive.Nowadays DVD technology gives dubbing into many languages for modern films but of course this technology was not available in 1942.However, with the U.S.A. catapulted into WWII from 1941, I can, to a certain extent, sympathise with the anti foreigner stance in films of this period.The only reason I bought this video was to add to my Hedy Lamarr collection and I was slightly disappointed with the length of part she was assigned.I thought with her intellect she deserved much better than John Garfield's character at the film end.The fact that it is not available on DVD seems to show that sensible distributors realise no thinking film fan would want to pay for it in this format.So in this DVD age I bought an old video from 1990 to play on my reconditioned v.c.r. player.I have given this film my lowest ever rating of 1/10.Awful just awful.

lastliberal It could only happen in Hollywood. They buy the rights to a Steinbeck novel about Mexicans and Portuguese in California and put all white actors in the cast.Now, maybe I can buy Hedy Lamarr as a Portuguese beauty, but Spenser Tracy and John Garfield as Mexicans? Ludicrous casting, especially when the story is so ethnic.But, maybe it was genius as common stereotypes about Afro- and Mexican-Americans are played out in the form of Tracy, as a shiftless bum who mooches off his friends and manipulates them into providing him with wine and a roof over his head. Pilon (Tracy) is not interested in satisfying anything but his own belly and even goes after a poor wood-seller called The Pirate, in the form of Frank Morgan, who, in a Scorcese moment, got the Oscar nomination he should have gotten three years earlier for The Wizard of Oz.Lamarr was as beautiful as ever, and John Garfield did a great job as her pursuer, even as he had to avoid complete ruin from the machinations of Pilon.

MartinHafer I don't know if Hispanics are offended by this film. My frustration with this film is NOT because I am politically correct (I am proud that I am NOT), but because the casting and performances were just so stupid. So, even if most are NOT offended, I was offended by how stupid the studio thought the viewers were to believe that Spencer Tracy, Heddy Lamarr, John Garfield and Sheldon Leonard were even the least bit plausible as CHICANOS!! Come off it--I think Hattie McDaniel or Maureen O'Hara would have been about as believable if they'd been offered these roles! As a result, it looked more like a performance of Jose Jimenez than a drama about the plight of these poor immigrants.

Dan Evans If you like comedies the whole family can see and enjoy. This is a movie for you. But it is more than a good comedy of life an wonderful characters in a poor Mexican community in Monterry California. First is the most improbable casting that worked so well. I can picture Spencer Tracy cast as most any character except for a Mexican passion, wise in somethings and dumb -- plain foolish -- in others. He managed the role wonderfully. Hedy Lamar -- a peasant girl looking for a man with a job who could make her a work at home mom with many babies. She pulled it off with a sizzle. Most of all it was a very thought provoking movie. If followed the ideas of the famous book by John Stienbeck most accurately. Showing how we tend to get into ruts in life and using the wonderful Northern California landscape to show some overlooked opportunities to live well. If you want to really get into this movie read the book first.