One of the most acclaimed actors in Hollywood, 1937’s Captains Courageous marked a milestone for Spencer Tracy. That film earned Tracy his first Best Actor Academy Award.

Based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel, adolescent Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) takes a boat voyage to Europe with his father Frank (Melvyn Douglas). However, the spoiled and pampered youngster ends up cast overboard during the journey.

Portuguese fisherman Manuel Fidello (Tracy) rescues him and Harvey ends up as a worker on a fishing boat captained by Disko Troop (Lionel Barrymore). This leads Harvey on a personal journey.

Although Tracy earned an Oscar for Courageous, Bartholomew carries the film. One of the more notable young actors in film historu, he manages a deft performance as the movie’s lead.

Bartholomew refuses to mug for the camera or try to make Harvey cute or charming. He ensures that our initial encounters with the character show him as devious and abrasive.

However, Bartholomew also manages to create some sympathy for the role. We can tell that Harvey acts out to earn attention from his semi-absentee father, but Bartholomew doesn’t overdo this.

Bartholomew also handles Harvey’s transformation well. He transforms Harvey from petulant brat to stable citizen in a smooth and convincing manner.

Unfortunately, Tracy proves less effective as Manuel. He camps up a storm with a bad Portuguese accent and he makes Manuel little more than a cartoon character.

Perhaps this reflects the role as written by Kipling. Nonetheless, Tracy overacts so much that I find it tough to swallow that the role would seem quite so goofy on the printed page.

Who thought the resolutely US Midwestern Tracy made sense as a Portuguese fisherman? Tracy would stretch his talents again as a Cuban angler for 1958’s The Old Man and the Sea and he wouldn’t fare any better there.

Even more oddly, Tracy’s wig and hat make him a dead ringer for Chico Marx. However, Marx would deliver a less silly performance and bring more realism to the role than the over the top Tracy.

With notables like Barrymore, Douglas, Charley Grapewin, Mickey Rooney and John Carradine, the rest of the cast fares better, however, and the basic story holds up fine. The tale of a spoiled kid who learns dignity and humility seems well-worn but director Victor Fleming manages to give it some charge.

Ultimately, Courageous becomes Bartholomew’s film to win or lose and he makes it compelling. The young actor carries the weight and ensures that we buy into the movie.

Captains Courageous appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not dazzling, the image largely held up well.

For the most part, sharpness looked good. Some softness appeared along the way – mainly in a possible attempt to make then-12-year-old Bartholomew look like the story’s 10-year-old lead - but most of the movie offered appealing enough accuracy.

I saw no signs of jagged edges, moiré effects or edge haloes. Grain seemed appropriate, and the film lacked print issues.

Blacks felt dark and tight, while low-light shots demonstrated reasonable clarity. Nothing here seemed terrific, but we nonetheless got a pretty good presentation for an effort of this movie’s age.

While also not exceptional, the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Courageous also presented relatively positive audio. At times lines sounded a bit reedy and rough, but they never suffered from any intelligibility issues.

Music came across as somewhat too bright and could occasionally sound slightly harsh. Nonetheless, the score was usually pretty well-rendered, and these components periodically boasted decent dynamic range.

Effects came into play mainly during action scenes on the sea. Those elements demonstrated acceptable definition and clarity.

No issues with noise interfered. Given the movie’s age, Courageous presented a perfectly acceptable soundtrack.

A smattering of extras appear, and Leo Is On the Air provides a 12-minute, 23-second radio promo for Courageous. It simply provides some clips from the movie, a factor that makes it vaguely interesting for archival reasons but not actually enjoyable.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we find two vintage shorts. The set includes How to Start the Day (10:10) and The Wayward Pups (8:28).

With Day, humorist Robert Benchley offers a comedic tutorial on the best ways to sleep and proceed in the morning. Benchley’s arch style provides amusement.

Pups focuses on a pair of adorable canines who get evicted from their house when a cat blames them for shenanigans. The short seems more cute than funny – and the kitty sounds oddly like Donald Duck – but it comes with some charm.

Despite a miscast Spencer Tracy, Captains Courageous provides a pretty good coming of age narrative. Young Freddie Bartholomew makes the journey vivid and compelling. The Blu-ray comes with reasonably positive picture and audio as well as minor bonus features. This winds up as a fairly engaging mix of drama and adventure.