The story is about the skid row denizens of Monterey, California, during World War II. As declining fish stocks are shutting down a previously rich fishery and the dependent canning industry, bums and prostitutes lead colorful and adventurous lives in a balmy seaside setting. Doc, a self-employed marine biologist, lives in a dockside warehouse and researches octopi. Suzy DeSoto, a girl from the localbordello, is working there only out of necessity. A collection of linked vignettes describes life on Cannery Row. It is depicted as an impoverished area inhabited by a motley band of people who have experienced failures, but somehow have found their niche and a community of strangely kindred souls. Doc and Suzy don’t quite fit in, but are accepted. Mac and the boys gather frogs and sell them to give a surprise party for Doc, which turns into a brawl and breaks the tank housing Doc's octopus collection. To make amends, they buy Doc a present of a microscope but mistakenly get him a telescope, instead. A deeper mystery revolves around why Doc stays in Cannery Row. Suzy discovers that Doc was once a professional baseball pitcher but quit. Another character, the Seer, spends his days playing his horn. He depends on the gifts that mysteriously appear, such as groceries. Suzy eventually learns that the Seer is a former baseball player whom Doc injured with a pitch to the head, and now Doc takes care of him. Doc and Suzy ultimately find love.
was cast as Suzy but was fired after the first few days of production and replaced by an actress 15 years her junior. Welch sued the filmmakers and won a reported settlement of more than $10 million in court.
Reception
Critical reception
In his two-and-a-half star review, film criticRoger Ebert wrote of the film: "The movie is almost always good to look at, thanks to Richard MacDonald's sets and Sven Nykvist's photography. And Nolte and Winger are almost able to make their relationship work, if only it didn't seem scripted out of old country songs and lonely hearts columns. It's tough to pull off a movie like this, in the semi-cynical 1980s. I guess we no longer believe in the essential heroism of the little guy, and in the proposition that anyone can succeed with a little luck." MGM head of production David Begelman later said he should not have greenlighted the film, saying it "was beyond the reach of the filmmaker to realise the wonderful, wonderful values he had in a brilliant script."
