Gentleman für einen Tag

...why would Ruth Collins (Joan Blondell) take desperate measures - and in the case of women in 1932 that could mean only one thing - to get that 64 dollars? The setting is a train station - "Union Depot" - during the Depression. At the beginning the camera goes back and forth over travelers that ultimately do not have much to do with the story - immigrant families speaking in foreign languages, a mother walking along with her four children tied together like a caravan, a sailor trying to make it with a street wise girl and getting nowhere, a woman saying goodbye to her Pullman porter husband and when he is out of sight embracing her lover with the good news - he's gone for a week! Into this hustle and bustle walk two hungry vagrants - Scrap Iron Scratch (Guy Kibbee) and young Chick Miller (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Scratch has retained his sense of humor but you can tell he has given up on life giving him a break. Chick is a quick thinking good looking fellow that in better times could have gone up any corporate ladder, but this is the Depression and it's all about your next meal and survival for these two and many others.

They, along with Ruth, have a one day adventure at the station that involves G-Men on the look-out for counterfeiters, the counterfeiters themselves, a violin-case stuffed with fake cash, and just for good measure, a villain in the classic sense - Dr. Bernardi that doesn't have anything to do with these other villains. He's a dirty old man with failing eyesight and a bad leg, yet he thinks he's up to physically overpowering a young healthy woman like Ruth? Despite Clint Eastwood's timeless true warning that a man's got to know his limitations, the villain still pursues her.

There's plenty of action in a place that is dangerous for any kind of action - Union Depot's train yards as locomotives exit and enter at high speed, and there's that great Depression slice of life that Warner Brothers was so good at during the pre-code years. Also look out for Frank McHugh in a small but important role as a man who in his drunken state can't tell a member of the armed forces from an information desk manager and whose forgetfulness in leaving his bag behind in the men's washroom - complete with new suit and shaving kit - is a piece of good luck for Chick. Or maybe it's ultimately bad luck? Watch and find out which. It will definitely hold your interest.

This film may not be as pretty as Grand Hotel but its on-par entertainment with that film. What drew me to this film was its Pre-Code status and Joan Blondell. Those things were definitely worth watching but let me put it this way, I came for Joan but stayed for Douglas. He carries this film and carries it well and I love his pairing with Guy Kibbee. I recognized Guy from the films Gold Diggers and I believe 42nd Street-some other pre-code gems. He's playing a very different character here than in those films and plays it well. I recently took a chance and purchased this on warner archive.com and I'm glad I checked out these helpful reviews. I decided to add my own review as every little bit helps and I while I love most old films they all aren't worth the time but this one is. The ending is especially real and I can't help but wonder if it in some small way inspired the ending for Casablanca. Watch it so you'll know what I mean. 9 out of 10!

Union Depot boasts an impressive cast of Warner Brothers regulars to supplement leads Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell. I've always maintained that Warner Brothers film of the 30s and 40s were never quite complete unless either Frank McHugh or Alan Hale was in them. Union Depot has both in the cast.

Fairbanks in Union Depot is proof positive that clothes do make the man. He and Guy Kibbee are a pair of tramps who hang around the railroad station and this night is both their lucky night and nearly the finish of them. When a drunken Frank McHugh leaves his bag running for a train, Fairbanks gets it and he's got all kinds of stuff including a nice wad of cash. Although how he ever fit in one of Frank McHugh's suit I'm still scratching my head over. They're not exactly the same size and body types.

Nevertheless sporting a new look Fairbanks meets down on her heels Joan Blondell an actress stranded when her show folded. She's doing what she has to do to survive and this part of the film could not have been made when the Code came in place. Fairbanks now a bit flush is looking for a little action and that's abundantly clear. But instead the two fall for each other.

In the meantime Kibbee finds a lost claim check for one of the lockers. That leads to the meat of the story involving counterfeiter Alan Hale. I won't say more.

There are a whole lot of small subplots involving the people who inhabit Union Station. This and Grand Hotel are probably the first of these kind of films with interconnecting stories involving a large cast and both came out in 1932. Some of these vignettes like the one involving a Pullman porter bidding his wife goodbye as his train departs and her going into the arms of her boyfriend are really priceless. There are many like that.

Union Depot is one fine pre-Code drama with both Fairbanks and Blondell at the top of their game.

At a busy train station, handsome hobo Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (as Charles "Chic" Miller) finds an abandoned piece of luggage with a perfectly fitting suit and shave case. After changing and shaving, Mr. Fairbanks finds a wad of money in a suit pocket. He gets a good meal and decides to enjoy sex with a prostitute, mistaking pretty blonde chorus girl Joan Blondell (as Ruth Collins) for a train station whore. She's "been around," but is basically "decent," Ms. Blondell tells Fairbanks. Naturally, Fairbanks decides to help Blondell. She needed fare to get to Salt Lake City for a job, and is also being chased by a sleazy limping George Rosener (as Bernardi). Meanwhile, Fairbanks' scruffy companion Guy Kibbee (as Scrap Iron Scratch) finds a discarded claim check, which he gives Fairbanks to redeem - it's for a fiddle case full of cash...

Lurking around among the travelers are suspicious-looking Alan Hale (as Bushy Sloan) and agents David Landau and Earle Foxe. Everything comes together quite neatly and suspenseful, arguably with the exception of Blondell's pursuer, who could have been more fully examined. "Union Station" was reportedly inspired by the book "Grand Hotel" and came out before the movie. The setting is a rich playground for director Alfred E. Green, but it's not quite an "ensemble" of drama. Fairbanks is clearly the central figure and the film could have been titled "Gentleman for a Day" after one of his closing lines. He is excellent in the role, by the way. Co-star Blondell beautifully leads the Warner Bros. supporting cast of characters. The pace, performances and excitement levels head off some production creakiness. The ending is surprisingly effective.

******* Union Depot (1/14/32) Alfred E. Green ~ Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Alan Hale

"Union Depot" is an interesting and absorbing melodrama loaded with vignettes and subplots. There is something for everyone in this train station but the plot focuses on Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Blondell, she a struggling actress and he a hobo in disguise. But besides their budding romance there is more going on than meets the eye; the FBI has staked out the station for a counterfeiter arriving on a train; an unbalanced psycho has followed Blondell, hoping to grab her/ attack her/ kill her, or all of the above. And so on.

There is a lot of activity and camera movement which keeps the picture moving and a screenplay which I felt captures the unsavory nature - or, perhaps, the human nature of a train depot, warts and all. Lowlifes blend in with the uppercrust just as would be the case in a real train station, and with some pre-code elements thrown in which couldn't be done a few years later. There are several recognizable character actors adding to the production, among them Guy Kibbee (hobo), David Landau (FBI), Alan Hale (crook) and Frank McHugh (amiable drunk).

TCM showed this one the other day. If you missed it and old movies are your cup of tea, catch it the next time it's listed, because it's a cut above the norm.