Baby Face Harrington

With all the right cast members for a comedy, MGM comes through in this shortie! Gene Palette, Don Meeks, Una Merkel, Charles Butterworth, and wrestler turned movie star Nat Pendleton. We follow husband and wife team Millie and Willie (Merkel and Butterworth) as they are caught up in an adventure when Willie thinks Skinner (Meeks) has taken his money. They get in deeper and deeper when fate, the police, the mob, and the big city reporters step in and make things worse. Directed by Raoul Walsh, although this one must have seemed pretty light fare, after the heavy work he had done earlier in his career. It's a "Much ado about nothing" sort of story, with a fluffy light script, but a fun way to kill an hour. Finally, a film where they give Palette and Meeks plenty of screen time. They were frequently relegated to tiny roles.

Baby Face Harrington is a slight but entertaining MGM bill filler that highlights the underappreciated talents of Charles Butterworth. This time he plays a meek and not terribly bright chap who gets mixed up with stolen money and a surly gangster. There's an excellent supporting cast on hand, led by Una Merkel as his loving and long suffering wife and Eugene Pallette as the gravel-voiced (what else?) local sheriff. 62 minutes of brief and breezy light comedy for fans of 30s B films.

I would not normally think of Baby Face Harrington as a Raoul Walsh type film as Walsh directed action/adventure films with some of Hollywood's leading actors in the lead.

Star quality eschewed in this 1935 release from MGM's B picture unit. A whole flock of familiar character players populate the cast of this one led by Charles Butterworth who plays his usual droll milquetoast character.

Through an innocent mistake Butterworth takes money from skinflint Donald Meek and his wife's uncle Eugene Pallette who is the Chief of Police has to arrest him. When one of the notorious Nat Pendleton's gang, Stanley Fields is arrested Fields breaks jail and Butterworth goes with him and now folks think maybe this mild mannered clerk might be a criminal mastermind.

Butterworth's wife Una Merkel stands by her man. But that doesn't stop the Snidely Whiplash type villain Harvey Stephens moving in.

All those people in this cast makes this almost required viewing. You will not be disappointed.

30s B picture with Charles Butterworth playing a meek and mild man who through ridiculous circumstances gets involved with a vicious gangster. Una Merkel plays his wife who loves him no matter what. Pleasant enough movie. It's not particularly good or that funny but I enjoyed watching it.

Good acting helps. Butterworth is great in the lead role. His dead pan line readings match the material beautifully. Also Merkel was excellent as his long-suffering wife. She's beautiful and plays her role perfectly. Every time she's on screen the film lights up. The supporting cast is full of great character actors that 1930s film fans will recognize instantly. The only real debits are a so-so script and some tired slapstick gags.

Mild-mannered 'B' comedy which serves as a vehicle for Charles Butterworth's oblivious, Tom Smothers-type humor, which can be very funny (see "Love Me Tonight"). In "Baby Face Harrington" he is asked to carry a whole picture and his particular talent is stretched to the breaking point. Luckily, the movie only lasts 65 minutes. As reviewers have written, he is a boring milquetoast to everyone but his adoring wife (Una Merkel). He unwittingly becomes mistaken as a notorious criminal, with the attendant misunderstandings and pitfalls.

Charles Butterworth's brand of humor is an acquired taste, and I acquired it over the years. A very funny man, this picture ends just in time. There are lots of noteworthy character actors to tide you over, and you can test your memory, as there are a lot of them.