Zita Johann

(On Cable TV, July 2021) Hollywood is arguably at its best when combining the familiar in slightly intriguing doses, an approach that finds its drawbacks when imitators pile up. From a contemporary perspective, there’s something well-worn to much of Tiger Shark, as it creates a love triangle between a tough man (Edward G. Robinson, playing a tuna fisherman who loses a hand in an accident), his wife and a man closely associated to them both. It all takes place in a dangerous, high-risk, manly environment, clearly fitting with director Howard Hawks’ career-long preoccupations. At a slim 77 minutes, Tiger Shark does make in brevity what it never really possessed in originality, but again it’s all about how the elements are combined. Hawks is playing to his strengths by taking a sometimes-documentary approach to men in a dangerous job — there are some fascinating moments here as we get a look at 1930s commercial fishing, echoing the later Come and Get It look at lumberjacks. Robinson goes all-out playing a rough and quick-to-anger character and the result does add quite a bit to the already decent film. The only two Hawksian trademarks that don’t quite fit in this early film are the Hawksian woman (Zita Johann is remarkably tame here) and the fast-paced comic dialogue, although let’s be reasonable: Hawks was still a few years away from hitting the heights of screwball comedy. The result is a bit more laborious than Hawks’ upper-tier films, but still a bit more action-packed and faster-paced than similar films of the era. Tiger Shark doesn’t have much to its title in terms of distinction, but it’s not a bad example of the form.