Starring Spencer Tracy

An old man fishes in the Caribbean Gulf Stream. He has gone eighty-four days without a catch. On the eighty-fifth day, alone in his boat, his bait is taken by a huge fish and for two whole days he struggles to gain mastery over it...
Ernest Hemingway won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel on which the film is based, and his dialogue is used almost word-for-word. The director, John Sturges, best known for Westerns like Gun-fight at the OK Corral and Bad Day at Black Rock (also starring Spencer Tracy) found dramatic composition at sea very difficult with only a man, small boat, and a fish; but he would appear to have overcome these difficulties and the photography, by James Wong Howe, assisted by another master, Floyd Crosby, is magnificent. Hemingway, who accompanied the film expedition part of the time, puts in a brief appearance in a cafe sequence. (Colour)