kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Edward G. Robinson looking as well as talking like a Mexican Bandito then a Portuguese fisherman is "Mighty" Mike Mascarehas the greatest fisherman this side of the Pacific Ocean. Mike who earlier in the movie lost his left hand to a tiger shark who bit it off while he was knocked out trying to rescue his fishing partner Manuel "Manny" Silva, William Ricciardi, who was devoured by a school of sharks tailing his boat. Fully recovered with a hook for a hand, that comes in handy in scratching his back, Mike goes to see Manny's daughter Quita,Zita Johann, to tell hr the terrible news about her dad ending up as shark bait and never, in being lost at sea, to be seen again even at his own funeral! It's then that Cupid's arrow strikes Mike through the heart and he falls madly in love with the pretty Quita even though she tells him she's not in love with him. This doesn't seem to matter to Mike who feels that he can win over Quita's love after he marries her and shows her what a great fisherman, as well as lover, that he really is.Finally giving into Mike and marrying him it soon turns out that Mike's good friend, who saved Mike from bring eaten alive by sharks, All-American looking Pipes Boley,Richard "Dick" Arlen,gets Quita's attention and despite Pipes doing his best to avoid it the two fall in love with each other. It's later that Mike recovering from a drunken binge finds both Pipes and Quita in each other arms that he plans to do both lovers in before his next planned, with Quita joining in,fishing trip!****SPOILERS****Mad and drunk with revenge Mike attacks and knocks out Pipes and plans to feed him to the sharks with the crewmen on his boat locked up in their cabins helpless to do anything to save him. It just happens that Mike's leg got tangled in a rope and he ends up in the water with a bunch of hungry sharks about to have him for lunch. Pipes now recovered from the beating he got from Mike jumps into the shark infested water and rescues him only after he goes into shock and later dies of his injuries. It's in the last moments of his life that Mike finally realizes just what a jerk he was telling him and Quita how sorry he was for all the trouble he caused for them. A fitting ending for a man who never knew who his true friends were until he faced death straight in the eye and was saved by the very one -Pipes- he just moments before tried to murdered.

calvinnme The plot of this film is nothing to write home about. Other reviewers have aptly summed it up as the quintessential love triangle. There are two things that make this film rise above 4 or 5 stars out of ten.The first is the great footage of commercial fishing as it was practiced circa 1930. It really was man versus the sea back in those days. There is also some footage of how the fish is delivered and then processed once the fishing boat docks.The second thing that makes this an interesting film is the odd combination of Edward G. Robinson on the way up, Richard Arlen on the way down, and Zita Johann in one of her few film appearances before she shrugged her shoulders and walked away from film after she decided she didn't need all the irritation she had to deal with as a Hollywood star.Edward G. Robinson was a newcomer to talking films, having only one credited film appearance in silents, that being in 1916. Not a classicly good-looking man, he was fascinating to watch in almost any role because of his talent for drama as well as comedy. Richard Arlen was a great leading man over at Paramount, and even retained his position at that studio for a few years after sound came in. He had the looks, he had the voice, but his popularity fizzled nonetheless. Zita Johann does not have, as others have mentioned, a thick accent. Her diction is perfect, and she has exotic looks that can only be compared to Kay Francis.Thus these three are thrown together in this film in exactly the way you'd believe them to be. Robinson as the likable fisherman, Mike, with a big heart who can't get a girl to love him because he is missing a hand that was taken by a shark. Zita Johann is the daughter of a fisherman on Mike's boat who falls overboard and is killed by a shark. Mike nurses her back to health - she is ill at the time her father dies - and takes care of her in general so that she feels beholden to marry him, plus she thinks she is through with love and feels that Mike will do as well as any man. Finally there is Arlen as Pipes, handsome friend of Mike. He and Mike's new wife fall in love but do not want to hurt someone that they feel has been very good to them.There are two big problems with this plot. In execution, the problem is that we don't see any relationship build between Mike's wife and Pipes. She just announces to Pipes one night that she loves him and that is that. I realize there is not much room for character development in a 75 minute film, but they could have let this build a little bit. In concept, the whole fact that someone as likable as Mike would not be able to attract a woman just because he is missing a hand is a bit much. Women have not now nor have they ever been attracted to men just because of looks. Character counts a good deal more. This is a case of a man writing about women as though they were men.In summary, if you run across this one it is always worthwhile to see Edward G. Robinson in action, but don't lose any sleep if it never comes your way.

barnesgene Those of us who read the entire book "Moby Dick" will remember interminable scenes devoted to descriptions of whale hunting and harvesting. That's how "Tiger Shark" seems: lots of extended scenes of tuna fishing and processing the catch. It really does serve to set a mood, and of course it juxtaposes the everyday life of a fisherman with the out-of-the-ordinary plot. And anyone with an interest can see how tuna fishing was actually performed in the Thirties. Big deal.For me, the movie started dragging from the git-go. I found Edward G. Robinson's unconvincing Portuguese patois boring from the first line, and his mother-lode of innocent jibber-jabber seemed grafted artificially onto the Robinson persona while never actually gelling. (John Wayne had a more successful outing with an accent when he played a Swede in an early film.) Then this Pipes-Quita romance comes along. Comes from out of nowhere. Suddenly she's in love. PUH-leese. A little poetic motivation might help things.Add the sappy ending. Yep, a solid "3".

bkoganbing Edward G. Robinson plays a one handed fisherman making his living on the California coast. Even with a hook for a left hand he does pretty good in his line of work. But that steel hook isn't exactly quail bait.One of his crew is lost to the sharks during a voyage and he brings the news home to his daughter Zita Johann. She's back home after having run away from the fishing life and has had a pretty rough go of it.Though she doesn't love him, Johann marries Robinson and then another Robinson's crew, Richard Arlen comes in to complicate things.Other reviewers have mentioned the gazillion times Warner Brothers recycled the plot of Tiger Shark in other locales. But actually Robinson had done a version of They Knew What They Wanted back in 1930 entitled A Lady to Love. That's the real origin of this plot.The fishing boat scenes are realistically handled and the principal players do a good job. But this story has been told better and told better by Mr. Robinson himself.