MIN AND BILL
US, 1930, 69 minutes, Black and white.
Marie Dressler, Wallis Beery, Dorothy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau.
Directed by George Hill.
Min and Bell is a brief comedy, set on the northern Californian coast amongst the boats and the sailors’ hotels on the coast. It is a rough setting designed for some slapstick comedy with the touch of violence.
Comedian Marie Dressler won an Oscar for this performance, an older woman, rough in manner and language, not good at showing emotions, who has adopted a little girl, now grown to a teenager, Nancy, played by Dorothy Jordan, who has been abandoned at her place by her slatternly mother, Belle, Marjorie Rambeau. Always hanging around the place is Bill, a rough fisherman, with an attachment to Min but also a roving eye.
Complications come when the young girl is flirts, is accosted by a man to be taken on to the streets. She is also a truant from school, working hard for her adoptive mother, but likes it. Min has saved up a lot of money for a rainy day and decides to invest it for Nancy, arranging for her to go to a private school and be educated as a lady – where she falls in love with a rich heir whom she had previously encountered in an upset with his boat.
Bill is always hanging around, Wallace Beery doing his usual performance. Marjorie Rambeau is very effective as the irresponsible and fun-loving Belle. But the film definitely belongs to Marie Dressler who appeared in Dinner at Eight and died in the early 1930s.
1. A rough comedy of 1930? The types, their activities, manner of speech, rough lives?
2. The title, the Oscar performance for Marie Dressler? The presence of Wallace Beery? Min and her age, experience, from Seattle, down the coast, wanting to return, saving the money? Her rough dress style, manner of speaking? Ordering the men around? Issues of drink and smuggling? The fishermen? Keeping order in her place? Hiding the money in the sock?
3. The production values, MGM, 1930, black and white photography, editing, comic style – and the special effects for the boat chase? The musical score?
4. Nancy, her age, abandoned by her mother, more or less adopted by Min? Her hard work, flirting, the man wanting her to go away, with implication for prostitution, and Bill hitting him, devotion to Min, playing truant, the authorities, her having to go to school, Min sending her to live with the family, her education, running away? Her not knowing her mother? Min getting the money, paying the couple to send her to the best school, two years, her education, falling in love with the heir? Returning on the boat, the chance encounter with Belle? Min not wanting to see her, wanting to give her independence, Nancy’s visit, Min and her rough reaction? Thinking that to live with the couple would be charity and not wanting it? Nancy and the happy ending with the wedding?
5. Bill, his character, fishermen, floating, drinking, friendship with Min? The attraction to Belle? The comic rouseabout?
6. lle, her past, leaving her daughter, not coming for 10 years, the clashes with Min? Min and her love for Nancy, yet not able to show it? Belle leaving again, returning on the ship, her bad reputation, the chance encounter with Nancy? Her wanting to stay, suspicious of Min? Seeing her daughter, wanting the money, Min and the gun for protection, pulling it, Belle attacking with the scissors, Min shooting her?
7. Min being taken away, watching the end of the wedding, happy, at least, in providing for Nancy? Her future?
