Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [163]
Riffraff had been developed specifically for Jean Harlow. “The studio doesn’t think so,” Thalberg said, “but I think she needs a crack at a dramatic story, and this is it.” The actress donned a red wig for the part of Hattie, a feisty cannery worker who’s stuck on Dutch, the cocky leader of the tuna fishermen and their union. It was a thankless role for Tracy, and Judith Wood, playing Harlow’s friend Mabel, remembered the picture was held several days owing to his “illness.” She went over to him when he finally appeared, having known him from Looking for Trouble (the eventual title of Trouble Shooter): “I said, ‘I’m sorry you were sick, Spencer,’ and he said, ‘Sick! Hell, I was drunk.’ ”
The picture began shooting on August 29, its script having been given a final polish by Anita Loos, who took screen credit along with H. W. Hanemann and Frances Marion. Tracy kept to himself, and associate producer David Lewis, who was present throughout the course of production, never got to know him. Harlow, who wasn’t drinking herself at the time, could see that Tracy was and resented it bitterly. One day, she stalked off the set and makeup artist Layne Britton followed. “What’s wrong, Baby?” he asked. “Tracy’s gassed,” she replied, “and I’m not going to work ’til he gets straightened out.”
Tracy was developing a reputation for being testy, and he gave unit publicist Cecil “Teet” Carle more “static, more worries, frets, resentments, frustrations, and ulcer symptoms” than any other performer. “A press agent welcomes consistency. A 100% heel or bitch can be coped with because he never varies. But Spence could be snarly and nasty one day, palsy and helpful the next.”
Publicist Eddie Lawrence had his first encounter with Tracy when assigned to write the pressbook for the picture. Tracy was in his dressing room with the door closed. Lawrence knocked, and Tracy “wiped me out. He said, ‘Don’t you ever, EVER knock on my door when the door is closed!’ And I said [in a crushed voice], ‘Oh.’ And so I went to see [M-G-M’s advertising director] Frank [Whitbeck]. And I said, ‘Frank, what’s this with Spencer?’ He said, ‘Well, you know, he has this terrible insomnia, and he’s resting.’ So it was quite understandable. Spence would leave the studio and go get a rubdown and sleep on it.”
Filming Riffraff with Jean Harlow. Director J. Walter Ruben looks on, 1935. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
Riffraff was a major undertaking, much of it shot on M-G-M’s Lot 1, where an elaborate wharf had been constructed alongside a man-made lake. The exteriors and the scenes shot on location at San Pedro gave the film size, but also made for an exceptionally long shoot. A total of fifty-six days was spent filming an unexceptional movie that did nothing to enhance the Thalberg legend nor advance Tracy’s standing with audiences.
They were a happy pair, Johnny and his mother. They learned in San Francisco that he had some hearing—not much, but some. “I can hear,” John proudly announced to just about everyone, confident that he would soon be hearing as well as everyone else. “We could not bring ourselves to disabuse his mind of this completely,” Louise said, “and, after all, how did we know, anyway?”
What hearing he had was in the speech range, which suggested the possibility that with the right hearing aid he might acquire a more natural tone of talking and the necessary adjuncts—rhythm, accent,