Here’s the deal. After waiting forever to do so, TCM is FINALLY showing Man’s Castle. As you probably know from looking at this site, it’s my favorite movie. And Greg is fond of it as well. So we’re going to take the opportunity and devote an entire podcast to it. The podcast will be after the Montgomery one, so it will definitely not take place until after TCM has aired the film. Which gives all of you who have TCM the perfect opportunity to watch it. Both so that you can enjoy this great movie, and so you can actually listen to the podcast and understand what we’re talking about.
The films airs on August 31st at 11:30 pm.
Obscure Classics 
August 25, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hey everyone!,
Hi, it is me Greg, from the podcast. I just wanted to give a quick shout out for Man’s Castle, this is a movie Katie turned me onto and I have seen a few times now. It is a great little movie and definitely worth checking out. I am also excited about the format of our podcast Katie will soon post for Man’s Castle. Having the chance to spend a whole podcast on one film really will allow us to dig in deeper then we have been able to on previous podcasts. Talking to Katie about film is always a treat (she is a wealth of knowledge) and when she is talking about a film that she loves so much we are all bound to be in for a great treat! Enjoy the film and check out the podcast. Thank you all for frequenting the site, I hope you are enjoying it half as much as we who are involved with it are!
July 10, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I saw that telecast of ‘A Man’s Castle’ back in 8-o8 and was disappointed. Not in the movie which I have adored since I first saw it on television back in the early 70s. What disappointed me was that a complete print of the film hasn’t been shown. What I saw was a print that SHOWTIME aired some 10 years earlier. There were small edits in the dialogue and continuity that may have been made after the production code came into existence. Mostly dialogue and action in the scene where Glenda Farrell and Spencer Tracy have an affair. The other noticible cut is when Loretta Young asks Spencer Tracy why he’s taking off his clothes. In the print TCM showed there’s a cut then you see a splash in the water and Miss Young runs to the edge of the barge. I have a VHS print from the 80s, taped from a local TV station where Spencer Tracy or his double runs nude in front of Miss Young and dives into the water. I was surprised that it was kept in a Screen Gems TV print but was cut from the print SHOWTIME and TCM aired. I have both on VHS and often thought of editing the two films together. There are missing parts in the Screen Gems version that the TCM version has and vice versa.
Outside of that I adore the film as a beautiful love story of the depression. Sensitively directed by Frank Borzage, beautifully photographed by Joseph August, and wonderful performances by Arthur Hohl, Walter Connolly, Glenda Farrell and Marjorie Rambeau. Rambeau and Hohl give the film it’s most raw climax. Then Borzage gives us a beautiful ending with Tracy laying along side Young in a boxcar heading for an unknown future. Do you ever catch the interior of Holh’s shack? It’s papered with art magazine clippings of nude women. I noticed it only in the climax and it reinforces his sleazy character. It may be me but I believe Marilyn Harris, the drowned little girl from Frankenstein is standing with other children looking up at Tracy who is on stilts wearing a clown costume. I always wondered if Farrell was filming ‘A Man’s Castle’ at the same time she was filming Capra’s ‘Lady For A Day’. ‘A Man’s castle’ is one of the films from the early 30s I would love to show to todays audience. Along with ‘The Bitter Tea of General Yen’ and ‘Pilgrimage’.
July 10, 2010 at 8:00 pm
I forgot to mention. The film also gave me a hankering to see RAFT and SIDNEY in PICK UP. If you’ve seen ‘A Man’s Castle’ then you know what I’m talking about.