Die fremde Mutter

Given the running time of barely over an hour my guess is that MGM did not think Min and Bill would wind up the success it did. But the team of Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler proved to be box office. It also proved that you didn't necessarily have to appeal to that all knowing youth market to have box office attraction. Min and Bill was definitely for the senior citizen trade.

Director George Roy Hill created a real waterfront atmosphere for the telling of this story of an old woman who runs a cheap waterfront boarding house and the old fisherman who's her boyfriend. Min has a young girl living with her who was deposited on her doorstep by her mother who took off.

Years later the mother, played by Marjorie Rambeau comes back with a vengeance and wants her kid. The daughter is played by Dorothy Jordan who is now in a finishing school and about to be wed to a rich young man.

Of course this sets up the final conflict. Marjorie Rambeau deserves some accolades as well for her performance as a waterfront tramp.

Since the conflict between Dressler and Rambeau is what drives the film, Beery is around, but he's not central to the plot. Still even today he and Dressler provide a few good laughs.

Marie Dressler who was in her sixties when she won her Oscar for Best Actress, lived only four more years after this film was done. On the strength of this film, she became a box office draw, making something of a comeback from her days in vaudeville in the ragtime era where she was a star. She and Beery partnered again in the lighter Tugboat Annie.

Min and Bill though a real antique from the early talkies retains a certain charm that still comes through for today's audience.

This isn't a great movie, certainly. But Dressler's performance is just as certainly great.

She acts with her face. And what a face! If being a movie star meant being beautiful and glamorous, Dressler had that - not at all. Her face was truly homely. But it was capable of a hundred different expressions, some of them quite subtle. She was, in a sense, the female Lon Chaney. You can see why she would have been a hit in the silents.

She can also do physical comedy with the best of them. Her knock-down, drag-out fight with Berry in his room is a stitch. Is that really Dressler in all that fighting? The story itself - lower-class mother who sacrifices everything to let her daughter have a good (read: upper-class) life was common in the 1930s. There are other famous examples, and they are all weepy. But Dressler's stoic performance of the woman who could not tell her daughter how much she loved her - and yet loved her more than her own life - remains as powerful today as it must have been then, though today it is usually presented as a father who can't express his love to his son.

The implied superiority of the "upper classes" is hard to take today, especially when you see how snooty these wealthy are. But that takes nothing away from Dressler's performance, which merited her Oscar even against some very tough - and very glamorous - competition.

Min and Bill (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Marie Dressler picked up the Best Actress Oscar for her performance here as Min, a waterfront rat who was given a small baby after its mother decided to run off. Min raised the kid to a young woman (Dorothy Jordan) along with the help of her friend Bill (Wallace Beery) but she is pretty much forced to throw her out to get her away from the trashy life on the waterfront. Then, Min must do even more when the girl's drunken mother shows back up. The actual screenplay here, by Frances Marion, is pretty standard for the era as it really doesn't try to do too much but there are some excellent performances that make the film worth viewing. I've been rather hit and miss on my opinions of Dressler but there's no question that this film belongs to her and it's without question the best work I've seen from here. I guess this was a real coming out after apparently considering suicide only a few years earlier when she made her comeback in THE PATSY, which eventually led to more roles and then this one, which got her the Oscar. Again, her look is just right for the film but I was amazed at how much heart and soul she pumped into her character and the film. This is a pretty dark little movie that doesn't take any comic turns or center on fake moments. The characters are shown as being ugly and trashy and it doesn't try to make them look good at any point. The film and Dressler's performance also makes it clear that ugly people can have good hearts, which I believe is the real point of the film. I was surprised that the film took a few of the twists that it did but then again, we're dealing with a pre-code era where happy situations weren't always forced on movies. Beery is also very good in his supporting role as his always plays the idiot well. I was also impressed with Jordan in her role and Marjorie Rambeau is fine as the drunken mother. Again, the screenplay is pretty straight forward and simple and it was clearly written to fit Dressler and Beery but the two take it, run with it and in the end deliver a nice little gem.

"Min and Bill" stars Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery as the eponymous Min and Bill. The first time I saw Marie Dressler in anything was the silent film "Tillie's Punctured Romance" (1914) with her and the incomparable Charlie Chaplin. That movie was wonderful. She was a lot younger in that movie, but she was the same type of character: a rough woman who could dish out punishment and take it as well.

In "Min and Bill" she plays the proprietor of a little inn on the wharf. They are somewhere on the west coast, perhaps in southern California, just a ship ride from San Francisco. Bill is her boyfriend(??). I have to add question marks because they seemed to be simply friends, but she got mighty upset when Bill was fooling around with a woman named Bella (Marjorie Rambeau).

Min was taking care of a school age girl named Nancy (Dorothy Jordan). We learn that Nancy is not Min's daughter, but she loves her and takes care of her as if she were her own. Min has such a gruff exterior and personality that even the love she shows looks like anger. The more love and appreciation Nancy showed Min the meaner Min would be, but we know she loves her even if she doesn't say it.

I would say that that was the main message of the movie: love can be shown in different ways. Min had to make some serious sacrifices for Nancy's sake. So even though she didn't verbalize her love or show it with body language, she did plenty to show her love. At times you want to slap Min and yell, "Can't you act like you love her!?" but that's not the type of person she was and by the end of the movie you will accept Min as the hero she was.

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Marie Dressler was always never less than watchable and when she was at her best ('Dinner at Eight' being one of the best examples) she was more than great. Wallace Beery was more mixed for me, he had fine performances in the likes of 'The Big House' but at other times he could be hammy and unbalance things. Seeing a film with them together did sound interesting, the story sounded charming and the positive critiques promising.

While not a perfect film, with a few things that don't work as well as others, 'Min and Bill' was a lovely way to spend just over an hour or so. The good things far outweighing the cons. Whatever reservations one has with the story, the performances of Dressler and Beery make 'Min and Bill' well worth watching. As well as the balance of humour and emotion, which is balanced just about right and both elements handled well individually too.

The story is very slight and very creaky, with some of the pace not always coming to life.

Also thought that the title does mislead, for a titular character Bill is too much of an underused plot device.

Dressler on the other hand is a marvel, never going over the top and the performance is amiable and at times very moving. She also has a very expressive face and telling expressions. Beery's good natured performance is one of his more subtle and better ones and his chemistry with Dressler is truly charming and gives 'Min and Bill' a lot of much needed heart. The production values are not exceptional but it's still nicely photographed. The direction is sensitive on the most part, if at times a bit on the staid side.

Like what was said above, there is humour and emotion here. Neither over-balances the other, though the latter resonates a little more, and the humour is gently amusing and the emotion genuinely touching.

Concluding, quite lovely if a bit creaky narratively. See for the chemistry of Dressler and Beery and for Beery and especially Dressler (who essentially is the film). 7/10