Victor Fleming, 1937, bw (8*)
Excellent early film adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling novel of a rich brat who falls overboard on an ocean liner headed for England, and is rescued by fisherman Spencer Tracy (who won an Oscar for Best Actor in spite of his awful Portuguese accent that Tracy later admitted was a Yiddish one he used on the stage). Child acting sensation and box office king Freddie Bartholomew is excellent as the spoiled kid who learns to both work and notice other people in the world while working with the fishermen. Freddie actually gets top billing over Tracy, ship's captain Lionel Barrymore, father Melvyn Douglas, and shipmate Mickey Rooney (thankfully sedated and without much dialogue). Barrymore (who detested child actors) said he could always work with Bartholomew because "he was never cute, he never acted like a child." Fleming later directed Gone With the Wind and Wizard of Oz.