As an avid movie aficionado and collector of Hollywood's Golden Years, who has little time for today's processed canned product, I rarely view anything made after 1955.But I thought that Cannery Row would be couple hours of escape with characters that lived simply in an earthier time and place.The opening, with the seagulls at evensong and the bell buoys swaying in the swell, with the fatherly voice narrating augured well.Then the two main protagonists were introduced to us. We had two Hollywood Idols of their day trying to act, or should I say emote, as two losers in a shanty town. That was bad enough, but I followed them into some elaborate expensive Emporium Brothel that was out of Paris of the 1890's with a staff of hookers that outnumbered the towns residents.I couldn't take any more, and at this point I gave up and canned the movie from my collection.I mean, Hunk Nick Nolte in his prime as an eccentric would be marine biologist and reigning beauty queen of the day Deborah Winger as a "drifter"?I am not even related to the Hemingways, but I wanted to sue Hollywood, too :)Take away the references to Hemingway and his book title and you have just another churned out, eminently forgetful, but expensively made TV pilot.

Cannery Row is "a poem, a stink, a grating noise" and.. it's still not a movie, yet! Trust me, Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck's second novel is so prominent in this film the title should be changed. I would love to see a film adaptation featuring some of Steinbeck's more down-to earth characters that made his novel so great. Where is Lee Chong, the humble Chinese grocer always looking out of the corner of his half glasses for shoplifters and have-nots like Mack and the Boys? We also shouldn't forget that Mac's pals inherited their Palace Flophouse from Horace Appeville who shot himself because he couldn't pay his grocery bill for two wives and a dozen kids. Lee Chong became Mack's landlord. Frankie, a half wit boy that idolized and loved Doc is also missing. I know the segmented quality of the book would have been difficult as a film but would have made it distinct from your run-of-the mill multiplex flick. Doc and Suzy were not paired up in Cannery Row, yet. The book was so great because Doc loved the study of nature so much he failed in his many efforts to find love. He retired to the quiet of poetry reading, cleaned up after the party, listened to music and his marine life he loved to study. His great quest for love unmet and the surprise that his love of nature was greater instead would have made an outstanding film.

Excellent commentary, very well done. If you liked A Christmas Story type of movie, you'll like this one! All the characters are great - the movie runs along at a good clip with nothing getting stale. There's just one thing after another here. If it's not mack and the boys and their shenanigans it's the relationship with Nolte and Winger, and if it's not that it's a party that goes haywire. I love it. By the end of the movie I was wishing to live at Cannery Row! Now if someone in the US would just WAKE UP and get this into DVD region 1 format, we'd have it made! I just don't understand why it hasn't been done yet with all the other movies now back on DVD.Jeff

Have not seen the movie in many years, but recall vividly the mood it created, particularly through the narrative provided by John Huston. Incidentally, for those of you who are curious and experimental, beer milkshakes don't really have a great deal of flavor, but like this movie, can be greatly enhanced through the addition of liberal amounts of blackberry brandy. Though not a parody, I am reminded of someone's observation that great parody must embody a true respect for the original. This movie can be easily criticized on many levels, but the admiration for the material seems fairly genuine, even if it does not always find the mark.