My parents lived through the depression, and they would have found themselves right at home in the world of Man's Castle. Bill's roughness is entirely appropriate for the times, given that he must live by his wits in a difficult world. Trina's sweetness seems a bit unreal, given the cynicism of our times, but I believed in it because Loretta Young gives a very natural and moving performance. She was only 20 and acts like a much more experienced performer.The romanticism of the movie is wonderful to see. Borzage--whose work I'd never seen before--believes in what he's doing and makes us believe in it too. Roosevelt is fresh in the White House and there is a spirit of hope and renewal in the country. I could criticize the editing for being a little too abrupt (cutting the film down to fit the B part of a double-bill), as an example the scene with Bill and Fay in her rooms, but that doesn't detract from my admiration.

I'd never even remotely heard of this one when I came upon it. This one seems similar to My Man Godfrey. The big difference being the comedy part that this one doesn't have.A poor and hungry Loretta Young sits next to a poor but content Spencer Tracy on a park bench. He finds out she's starving and takes her in and shows her the ropes around his home in a shanty town. Even though life is tough in the depression he makes it easy on her and always seems to put her mind at ease when food and money are low. He's always taking one odd job after another. Eventually he falls in love with her but he's not a guy who likes to hold on to things or to be tied down. He's always ready to move on. Problem is though, he never does. The trials and tribulations of a poor couple during the midst of the depression is the basic premise for the rest of the film. How to get money and living around a few characters in the same situation they live in. Trying to make the right moral decisions and doing the right thing.This one is worth a watch because Spencer Tracy makes any film he does very watchable. He's basically the same in all films but he, like Clark Gable, could play every different role the same and you still wanna watch it. Loretta Young is as beautiful as she always was and plays the poor little starving but thankful girl just right. Grab this one and watch a tiny glimpse of what the depression was like at the time this was made. After this, try Meet John Doe and see a better film on a similar topic.

Wearing a tuxedo during the Depression, smoking Spencer Tracy (as Bill) picks up starving Loretta Young (as Trina) while feeding popcorn to some curiously adorned pigeons in Central Park. He turns out to be poor, also, and was only dressed as an advertising street-walker. They go skinny-dipping in the Hudson River and shack up in New York City's "Hooterville". Ms. Young becomes thoroughly domesticated; she cooks, irons, and decorates Mr. Tracy's shanty with fancy curtains. Tracy treats Young badly in the shack and sees other women on the side, like sexy singer Glenda Farrell (as Fay La Rue)...At home, Young resists skuzzy neighbor Arthur Hohl (as Bragg) and befriends boozy Marjorie Rambeau (as Flossie). They add danger to our drama. Babe Ruth fan Dickie Moore (as Joey) and a reverend Walter Connolly (as Ira) are also in the cast. Tracy and Young connected in real life, too. Indeed irresistible, Young weathers the Depression looking never less than perfect in cinematographer Joseph August's soft focus. Director Frank Borzage's "fairy tale" romance is lauded in some quarters, not mine. There are some good production values, and Mr. Hohl contributes a good supporting performance.***** Man's Castle (10/27/33) Frank Borzage ~ Spencer Tracy, Loretta Young, Arthur Hohl, Marjorie Rambeau

As other reviewers have noted, this is an unjustly neglected Depression-era film. Directed by Frank Borzage (two Oscars) and written by Jo Swerling (Leave Her to Heaven, The Westerner, Lifeboat, etc.), it is a tough-minded, well-structured and -realized move about denizens of a New York City shantytown. They're grifters, beggars, and women forced into prostitution, but they're a community of people both good and bad, with loyalties as complex as any group's.Perhaps primary among this movie's many admirable qualities is the contrast between Spencer Tracy's character, Bill, and Loretta Young's Trina. He tough-talking, physically aggressive, and evidently fearless-- but Bill is not the character who gives this film its steely sense of survival. While he blusters, Trina actually hangs tough (if that term can be applied to a character so ladylike). Her devotion to him is obvious, and complete. When she becomes pregnant, she says she will raise it herself if he wants to leave. Such is the dignity of Loretta Young's performance (at age 20) as a very simple, even simple-minded character, that she seems neither weak or dependent, but rather a woman who recognizes happiness when she finds it, and love, and who has learned the hard way that it's worth holding on to because it doesn't come around often. nothing more.