Captains Courageous (1937)

I'd never seen this before and I was lucky enough that it was playing on the big screen at The Somerville Theatre right in my neighborhood. It's the story of a spoiled rich kid (played flawlessly by Freddie Bartholomew) who tumbles overboard an ocean liner going to Europe and winds up living on a Gloucester fishing schooner in the Grand Banks for three months. It's a Kipling novel and of course the boy, under the influence of the gruff fishermen, becomes a man. He sparks a particularly deep relationship with Manuel, a Portuguese fisherman played by Spencer Tracy.  Tracy uses a bizarre accent and has a bad perm but it doesn't matter because his portrayal is so heartfelt. He forms a genuine fatherly bond with his "little fish." My favorite part of the film was the little details of fishing at that time, plus the shots around Gloucester, particularly by the fisherman's statue. A much better movie than A Perfect Storm.