cult film freak: EDWARD G. ROBINSON'S FISHY LOVE TRIANGLE OF 'TIGER SHARK'

Written by James M. Tate / 3/03/2022 / No comments / adventure , edward g. robinson , love triangle , melodrama , richard arlen , romance , shark , thirties , warner archives , zita johann

EDWARD G. ROBINSON'S FISHY LOVE TRIANGLE OF 'TIGER SHARK'

3/03/2022 | No comment

Title: TIGER SHARK Stars: Edward G. Robinson Year: 1932 Rating: ***

Had the antique fishing-village-set TIGER SHARK come out ten years later, it would've made a pretty intriguing Film Noir, following the trope of the pretty young girl marrying an older businessman while falling in love with the handsome younger fella who has no money, and is friends with the rich guy...

In this case that rich guy, before there was any money and when he had both hands... during the more adventuresome Hemingway-meets-Melville first act... saves the life of Richard Arlen as common fisherman Pipes Boley by losing one hand to the titular (yet thereafter unimportant) TIGER SHARK, later replaced with a hook...

Zita Johann in TIGER SHARK with Edward G. Robinson

Making Edward G. Robinson more a gentleman dandy than the pirate he'd seem... and his only real handicap is baby-faced ingenue Zita Johann, feeling no chemistry with Robinson's Mike Mascarenhas as a husband, leading to when and how he'll discover where her love is going...

Which does genuinely provide the short/stout firebrand the kind of dangerous potential for the audience to anticipate his inevitable explosion... But too much time's spent on the searing romantic triangle when an actor like Robinson needed and deserved more of an edgy potboiler than this bizarre morality-play programmer.

Edward G. Robinson in TIGER SHARK

Richard Arlen and Edward G. Robinson in TIGER SHARK

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Tags : adventure , edward g. robinson , love triangle , melodrama , richard arlen , romance , shark , thirties , warner archives , zita johann

James M. Tate

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