Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) has just inherited $1,100 from his aunt. Having lived his whole life in rural Indiana he decides to use that money to move to New York City where life is more exciting than anything he is accustomed to. The railman selling him his ticket to the big apple has some experience with New York and imparts some words of warning that fall on deaf ears. Reluctantly, he sells Bud the ticket but places a bet on the side with one of his friends that Bud will be back in less than a month.
Bud arrives in New York and checks into a plush hotel where he is later greeted by his street smart cousin Gibby (Walter Catlett) who immediately starts fleecing the naive young man out of his inheritance. Gibby introduces him to city life including two chorus girls, Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell) and Faun (Inez Courtney). The group throw a party in Bud’s hotel room along with several other acquaintances of Gibby’s and at some point a fight breaks out between two of the men. The lights go out and when they come back up, one of the female guests, Jackie (Josephine Dunn) is laying on the floor dead. Everyone from the party flees including Bud and Vida, whom Bud has fallen in love with. Naturally, the police are now looking for Bud as the prime suspect since it was his room Jackie was killed in.
There is little to recommend in this thinly written farce. There’s a mystery to the proceedings involving who really killed Jackie. This is given so little thought that when it is finally unraveled it is abrupt and unsatisfying. The resolution comes along almost as an afterthought, a convenience to wrap up the narrative. We know Bud didn’t do it but we never care who actually did. The cops believe Bud did it and proceed along those lines until the true guilty party is practically gift wrapped and handed to them. It’s poorly conceived and even more weakly executed.
Of the main cast Joan Blondell comes out the best. She has next to no character to work with but manages to make what she does sympathetic and even charming. It is no wonder Bud falls for her so easily. Joan had to have known how shallow this character was when she read the script and she proved why she was such a star with how she handled it. When she’s saying her goodbyes to Bud in the final act we see the pain in her eyes and believe it is hurting her, even though she barely has had time to get to know Bud. In contrast, we get none of that from Eric Linden who seems to have learned nothing from the events of his time in the city. The only interesting turn we get from his character is that, even though he predictably ends up back on the train to Indiana in the end, he is still intent on returning to the city to make another go at it.
Walter Catlett is an absolute delight chewing the scenery as the greasy weasel cousin Gibby. He, like nearly everything else here, is playing things very broadly. But it is such a delight watching him fast talk his way into Bud’s money and, while we dislike him for being so shady, we still like it more when he is on screen as he brings a charisma and energy lacking anywhere else in the film. He seemingly knows everyone in town and has a quick answer for everything. The only downside is he never gets his comeuppance.
Rounding out the cast are several uncredited performances by soon to be stars Humphrey Bogart, Lyle Talbot, Evelyn Knapp, and several others. They are peppered in, mainly at the apartment party. Of these, Bogart makes the biggest impression as Shep, a friend of Gibby who is there to enjoy the booze and the women. His voice is easily heard over the others as they are escorted into Bud’s apartment and, during the festivities, his easy going persona draws attention to him, showing that even in throwaway roles, this was someone with a career ahead of him in show business. It’s not much of a role and once the party is over he disappears from the movie, but it is a memorable one.
Director Mervyn LeRoy paints this picture with extremely broad brush strokes. Every scene, every main character is so broadly drawn that it is difficult to take any of it seriously. This wouldn’t be a problem if the film was attempting to be a screwball comedy but it isn’t doing that. It’s a farce, for sure, a shaggy dog story, but one that takes itself too serious at times to make for a successful one. Very little happens and when the story is played out the main character hasn’t learned a thing and only wishes to go back for another round.
Big City Blues is a prime example of a film that doesn’t have much of a point beyond just being there to provide an hour of entertainment. There are no real messages behind the proceedings nor is there an agenda to get across. It exists as a farce, a broadly painted portrait of big city corruption and the naive nature of country folk getting swallowed up by the temptations and excitement. It’s filled to the brim with caricatures and clichés, worth watching for no other reason than to see some of Hollywood’s biggest stars in early roles before they were famous.
Release Date: September 10, 1932
Running Time: 63 minutes
Starring: Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Walter Catlett
Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy
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