Big City

A very funny film that stars Luise Rainer and Spencer Tracy as a taxi cab driver and his wife. The plot is basically two cab companies fighting over which one gets the territory or something like that. The two main stars are great and Luise Rainer has top billing over Tracy. I've read a lot of negative reviews but i think it's very funny.

New York City cabdriver Spencer Tracy (as Joe Benton) picks up dewy-eyed Luise Rainer (as Anna Roya) on the street one evening and makes amorous advances. A policeman stops Mr. Tracy's aggressive moves, but Ms. Rainer jumps into his arms. As it turns out, the co-stars are happily married and enjoy role-playing. The real problem is with "independent" driver Tracy and a big taxicab company. A taxi war is going on and Ms. Rainer, a Russian immigrant, becomes a murder suspect. Future "My Three Sons" TV series favorite uncle William Demarest (as Beecher) stands out as the lead bad-guy. Near the end, Jack Dempsey and several sports figures appear...

"Big City" opens like a comedy, turns into a hard-boiled crime drama, then tries to merge events in a closing stolen by athletic fighter and manic speedster Eddie Quillan (as Mike Edwards). The film is a vehicle for Rainer, elevated to MGM stardom as studio chief Louis B. Mayer sought another Greta Garbo. More like Garbo's Russian ballerina from "Grand Hotel" than Tracy's working-class wife, Rainer recalls the Swedish superstar most in her telephone and ice cream cone scenes. The two-time "Oscar" winner has an interesting courtroom outburst and emotes unmercifully during her saddest scenes. Director Frank Borzage moves it along and captures some atmosphere.

***** Big City (9/3/37) Frank Borzage ~ Luise Rainer, Spencer Tracy, William Demarest, Eddie Quillan

Luise Rainer and Spencer Tracy are an affectionate couple in "Big City," a small film from MGM, which is surprising, since it has two big stars in it. The happy world of Joe and Anna is torn apart when her brother is killed as a result of a war between the independent cabbies in New York and a large cab company. Anna is blamed and plans are made to deport her.

Rainer and Tracy make a sweet couple; one really believes they're in love. Tracy is wonderful. Rainer is beautiful with soulful eyes, and of course, she gets another telephone call as in "Hello, Flo" in "The Great Ziegfeld." Rainer takes a lot of heat for winning two Oscars in a row and basically disappearing soon after, as if this was her fault. She was, and still is, a strong-willed woman who came up against Louis B. End of story. He's long dead and she's still alive as of this writing, at the age of 96, and made a film in 2003. So take that, Louis.

This film was made at a time when you weren't supposed to see a woman's pregnancy, and though Anna is pregnant in the story, in fact, far enough along to be ready to give birth, from the look of her, the baby should have weighed half an ounce.

The end of the film is a free-for-all featuring some of the great sports figures of the day, listed in the cast, including Jim Thorpe, Maxie Rosenbloom, and Jack Dempsey. Look for Ruth Hussey in a small part as the mayor's secretary.

Fans of Spencer Tracy, Luise Rainer, and director Frank Borzage should enjoy this routine cab-driver/gangster melodrama. The first five minutes are a well-done perceptive trick on the viewer, but it's downhill from there. The acting and directing are above average, but the script is saccharine and almost embarrassing. The climax involves the gimmick of famous prize fighters appearing in a brawl, and there's an attempt to find humor in Guinn Williams drinking a quart of milk non-stop while policemen watch. The interesting plot turn of deportation is not very well handled.

After watching Big City a, TCM, television version of the movie, I felt cheated that I had not seen Luise Rainer before. She was magnificent, sweet, and believable. Because of my research on this 1930s two-time, back-to-back Oscar winner, I can't wait to see the other seven films in which she acted. She won an Academy Award in 1937 & 1938. She left acting at the peak of her career, and that is very sad. This woman had something "different" about her. Though she is now 102 years old and lives in England, she has a new American fan. Spencer Tracy was the male lead, and he was his usual incredible self, but Luise Rainer, in my opinion, upstaged the great Tracy!