BIG CITY BLUES
US, 1932, 63 minutes, Black and white.
Joan Blondell, Eric Linden, Walter Catlett, Guy Kibbee.
Directed by Mervyn Le Roy.
Big City Blues is a small film of 1932 even though it starred Joan Blondell who was on the up and up at Warner Brothers and used a number of standard supporting cast including Walter Catlett and Guy Kibbee.The central character was played by Eric Linden, New York born but from a Swedish family who appeared in films from 1931 to 1939.
The first half of the film focuses on a young man leaving home in Indiana on an adventure to New York City, naive and ingenuous, arriving to meet his cousin, and incessantly talking con man played in his usual style by Walter Catlett, who relieves the young man of a lot of his cash with smooth talk and seeming graciousness. He also introduces the young man to two showgirls from the George White Scandals, one of whom is Joan Blondell who is attracted to the young man and he more than attracted to her.
His cousin prepares a big party in a swank hotel with plenty of guests, especially from the theatre world, with the cousin emphasising his contact with everyone in the city including the mayor, Jimmy Walker.A surprise face amongst the guests is Humphrey Bogart.
The young man tends to be overwhelmed, keeps his attention on Joan Blondell, alcohol flows freely, but a fight breaks out between two of the men, including Humphrey Bogart, which leads to the death of one of the showgirls. everybody escapes but the security guard, played by Guy Kibbee who is not against imbibing himself, gives information to the police who rather relentlessly try to track down the young man and Joan Blondell, eventually finding them in a club after the young man has met up with a rather grande dame who is very kind to him.
The next part of the film is very much a grilling by the police, rather relentless, assuming guilt. Most of the other guests are rounded up and also appear in the police caught – with a group of police as well as of journalists with rather sensationalist headlines.
The end comes very quickly, some more evidence, the young couple being released, he returning home to Indiana but sending a cable to Joan Blondell – with the hopes of a new visit and meeting her again.
Very slight – and of historical interest, an early film by Mervyn Le Roy who was to stay at Warner Brothers during the 1930s but moved to MGM for big budget films and dramas and melodramas during the 1940s and 1950s.
