Old Man and the Sea Rescue

For generations the stories of Rudyard Kipling have conjured wild adventures, and “Captains Courageous” (1937), as adapted from the novel, doesn’t disappoint.

The scenes of the high seas, a community of men working and living in tandem, are as vivid as any imagination could come up with. These fishermen, who cut hooks out of their own flesh, even make singing a manly act.

The production values are incredible; in both drama and visuals, I’d put this sea tale up against the unsinkable “Titanic” any day. It’s emotionally engaging too, though it’s a different kind of love story. Director Victor Fleming (before “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind”) makes chopping fish heads seem romantic.

Spencer Tracy plays the crusty but kind Portuguese fisherman Manuel, who plucks out of the sea a spoiled rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) who’s fallen off a luxury liner. The equally crusty captain (Lionel Barrymore) decides the boy cannot be returned until his fishing vessel is full--about three months.

This is a perfect coming-of-age movie plot line; reluctant hero finds mentor, takes mythic journey into unknown, emerges a better person.

As the mentor, Tracy doesn’t enter the movie for an hour, and when he does, that goofy accent is disorienting: “Fifteen years I been a fisherman. First time I catch feesh like you.” But most people get used to the accent long before the climax, a weepy goodbye (death) scene: “Now listen to me, leetle fish. I go now. . . . Manuel, he be watching you.” In between, Tracy does some of his finest acting--and singing--and his comic timing is intact.

Tracy’s Oscar-winning performance as best actor, followed by his win in 1938 for “Boys’ Town,” made him the first to win consecutive “best” Oscars, until Tom Hanks’ performances in “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump.”

Mickey Rooney plays the captain’s son.

* Tuesday at 7 p.m. Cinemapolis, 5635 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Running time: 116 minutes. $4.50. (714) 970-6700.

‘The Awful Truth’ Is Awfully Funny

Leo McCarey won an Oscar for his direction of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in “The Awful Truth” (1937), with Oscar-nominated performances by Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, but Grant--who never won an Oscar!--is the star here, providing perfect comic timing, several masterful pratfalls and looks worth a thousand words.

One delightful, madcap scene follows another in the classic screwball tradition. In the lightweight plot, a divorcing couple (Dunne and Grant) try to mess up each other’s new relationships because, of course (and this is the awful truth), they really still love each other.

It’s an old story but done well. In fact, the best-picture nominee (“The Life of Emile Zola” won) was also nominated for its script and editing.

Mr. Smith is not credited; he is played by the dog best known as Asta, the terrier in the “Thin Man” movies.

* Tonight at 7 p.m. in Chapman University’s Argyros Forum, Room 208, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Running time: 92 minutes. Not rated. Free. (714) 997-6765.

‘Danzon’ Tells Tale of Love, Adventure

Maria Novaro presents an upbeat story in “Danzon” (1991), about Julie, (Maria Rojo), a telephone operator who escapes her humdrum routine through danzon, a French contra-dance originating in 19th century Haiti. When her dashing longtime dance partner suddenly disappears, Julie becomes obsessed with finding him. Her adventures, highlighted with vivid Mexican music, transform her ideas about life and love. The Mexican film won the Director’s Fortnight Award at the Cannes Film Festival that year.

* In Spanish with English subtitles. 103 minutes. Rated PG-13. UC Irvine Film Society, UCI Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium. 7 and 9 p.m. Friday. $4.50 general, $3.50 UCI faculty, staff, senior citizens and students at other schools; $2.50 UCI students. (949) 824-5588.

Epic ‘Cleopatra’ Beats ‘Titanic’ as Love Story

Before Titanic tried to conquer the North Atlantic, Cleopatra reigned as Queen of the Nile. As movies go, history may consider both to be opulent if misbegotten exercises in cinematic excess. But for passionate love stories, I’ll take Liz and Dick over Kate and Leo any day.

The four-hour love story “Cleopatra” (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was made for $44 million (That’s about $300 million today; “Titanic” clocked in at $235 million).

Several good performances--Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowell, Hume Cronyn, Carroll O’Connor and Martin Landau--are dwarfed by the sheer mass of the picture. Still, academy members who got through at least part of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s lush epic were impressed enough to give it Oscars for cinematography, art direction, costumes and special effects--though not for editing.

The 7 p.m. Friday screening is co-sponsored by UCI’s department of art history and the school’s Film and Video Center.

Those who succumb to Cleo’s charms can also attend the symposium, which is free and open to the public. It runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Room 100 of UCI’s humanities building. (Get there around 8:30 and you can have coffee and pastries first.) Speakers from England, Italy and American universities such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins will discuss Cleopatra’s life and death, her interaction with Rome and her impact as a symbol of Egypt on the art and literature of ancient Rome and the modern West.

* 7 p.m. Friday. Film and Video Center at UCI, Humanities Instructional Building, Room 100, off West Peltason Drive. Free. (949) 824-7418.

‘Samba Traore’ called Universal Morality Tale

Many nonprofessional actors were used in the 1993 movie “Samba Traore,” giving it a spontaneous, sometimes awkward quality. Director Indrissa Ouedrago once explained: “I think a film can be richer for all of this. And I know that what is true is fair.”

New Yorker Films called the movie from the African nation of Burkina Faso “a universal morality tale set in the austerely beautiful plains of the African Sahel region. Samba Traore, on the run after a gas-station holdup, returns to his native village a rich man, becoming both benefactor and enigma to his neighbors.” Samba is an Everyman who cannot, ultimately, ignore his guilt or his past.

* Tuesday at 8 p.m. as part of Chapman University’s African film series. Argyros Forum, Room 208, 333 N. Glassell St., Orange. Running time: 85 minutes. Free. (714) 997-6765.

‘Dreamer’ Shows Off Work of UCI Alumni

“Dreamer” (1995), about the rewards and liabilities of following one’s dreams, is the first feature-length film to be directed by UC Irvine alumnus Chriso Assefi, who also wrote the script and produced and edited the movie. It stars fellow alum Nick Feyz and showcases production work by film studies graduates Fabian Marquez and Nicole Carrasco. Assefi will be at the screening.

* Today at 7 p.m. Film and Video Center at UCI, Humanities Instructional Building, Room 100, off West Peltason Drive. Free. Unrated. (949) 824-7418. Web site: https://www.humanities.uci.edu/fvc.

Short Takes

“Behind the Scenes in Cinema” features representatives of various parts of the film industry in a panel discussion, followed by a question-and-answer session. The program, Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Newport Beach, opens the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Panelists include a documentary filmmaker and directors or producers who have worked on such films as “American Graffiti,” “Congo” and “American History X.” Newport Beach Arts Commission, 7 p.m., Newport Beach Central Library, 1000 Avocado Ave. Free. (949) 717-3870.

Martin Scorsese’s dark, gory parable “Taxi Driver,” starring Robert De Niro as Travis Bickel, a whacked-out Vietnam vet determined to make a violent mark on the world, screens today only at the AMC 30 at the Block, City Drive, Orange. Call for hours.

De Niro’s New York state of mind is chilling. A young Cybill Shepherd and an even younger Jodie Foster enter Bickel’s sights, and the haunting Bernard Herrmann score was his last. 113 minutes. Rated R. $3.75 twilight show, or $7.75 general, $4.75 students and seniors. 2:30, 5:30, 8 and 10:30 p.m. (714) 769-4262.

Old-timers who prefer trouble defined as Hayley Mills bugging the nuns at a convent school might prefer “The Trouble With Angels” (1966), directed by Ida Lupino and starring Mills, Binnie Barnes and Rosalind Russell. The sweet little movie screens Friday at 12:45 p.m. at the Cypress Senior Center, 9031 Grindlay St., (714) 229-2005.

The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art presents “Beethoven: The Composer as Hero” at 7 p.m. today. The 53-minute film is about how politics affected Beethoven’s compositions and personal life. Free with museum admission, $2-$6. 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana, [714] 567-3600). The screening is preceded by live piano music in the museum’s Galleria at 6 p.m.