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The Big Street (1942)

Packed with great actors, major and minor, in a fast fast whirlwind

First of all, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins played the previous year in another raging movie of some fame (Citizen Kane, yup), and here they are loaded up against a dozen other great character actors, plus a couple big names. Headlining is the well known Henry Fonda, still young, but fresh off of a couple great films, Grapes of Wrath (1940), and The Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). But in a kind of startling role for those who know Lucille Ball as a brilliant and goofy t.v. comedian a decade later, we have her here as a big-eyed femme fatale, or would-be femme fatale until fate takes a turn.

You might think this one is a screwball comedy the way it starts, but keep watching-- there is violence and trauma soon enough, and the movie takes a turn that Fonda is worthy of. There is a Frank Capra feel-good element amidst the hardship, but it is full of verve, and all these odd characters who really are (were and are) what New York is at its best. The director Irving Reis (with photographer Russell Metty) keeps the scenes snappy, and sometimes moves from a closeup of a face to a background quickly, to let a character make a dramatic point. There are lots of movie tricks, quick fades from scene to scene to show the passing of time, and some tacky back projection, and it really goes along with the fairy tale narrative.

And there really is an unbelievable ending, which you have to take with the whole flavor of the movie, a kind of sincerity/fantasy mixture.

I saw this film in the late '60's on our local TV station. It was not unusual to catch B movies starring our television personalities back in the day. What a film! I cried at the end. What shines through is the portrayal of the class levels within American society then. Lucille Ball's dame certainly internalized the idea that she was above the class of Henry Fonda's Pinky even while she subsisted on the food he brought home for her after she was no longer a gangster's moll. Henry Fonda's Pinky was a true codependent, picking her up from the floor, keeping her alive, even moving her from cold, icy New York City to the east coast Eden of Miami (shades of Midnight Cowboy!)with nary a thank you from this ungrateful woman. Through a plot device, Pinky and the busboys don tuxedos at the end so she condescends to be carried up the stairs by one of their own, enabling her self deceit that she is an upper class lady. Someone wrote it was too much of a downer to have been successful when released and couldn't be made today as the bit players do not exist to round out the cast. Rise above the limitations of both eras and enjoy this film.

The comments about the Fonda character having 'no reason' to take the abusive and selfishness of the Ball character makes me wonder if this person ever loved anyone unconditionally. There are many people in this world that take worse than the verbal abuse from the person they love and stay with them their whole lives.

The Ball character was very well done and I don't think I remember Ball being a character like that after this movie. I don't like Lucille Ball as a comedienne, its too bad that she wasn't able to continue as a dramatic actress she would have done well.

But the movie is all about love conquering the selfish...wish it was that way all the time.

Damon Runyon's short story "Little Pinks" is turned by RKO into a solid acting showcase for Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, also utilizing a troupe of colorful supporting players to their best advantage. Supper-club singer in New York City is crippled in a fall--and promptly loses her free ticket into high society. The only person who still cares for her is a smitten, well-meaning busboy; he hitchhikes all the way to Miami with the wheelchair-bound chanteuse, where they cross paths again with the well-heeled gangster who caused her unfortunate accident. The melodrama inherent in the main plot is suffused (and some may say strengthened) by the comedic overtures of the character turns, most especially by Eugene Palette and Agnes Moorehead as a couple who love to eat and argue. Ball, floundering at RKO in 1942, was quickly snapped up by MGM after this performance, and its clear why: her narcissistic songbird is self-centered and often ridiculously delusional, but your heart goes out to her anyhow. *** from ****

This interesting story failed to make it big with audiences in its initial release, but is actually a noteworthy picture, nonetheless. This unlikely story has Henry Fonda as Little Pinks, a shy, timid busboy, who's obsessed with Lucille Ball's self-absorbed, mean-spirited torch singer. Despite her poor treatment of him, he continues to worship her. During an argument with her louse of a boyfriend, he (the boyfriend) pushes her down a flight of stairs. Paralyzed and desperate, Gloria moves in with Pinks. The wheelchair-bound diva alienates everyone around her with her anger and venomous commentary. But Pinks doesn't let it bother him. Instead the "odd couple" go on an unusual roadtrip together. He pushes her in her wheelchair all the way to Miami - pretty dumb, really !

Ball is excellent, and in top form. It's great to see her in such an unusual role (see also 1947's "Lured"). Fonda is great, too, as the innocent and smitten young man. And the rest of the cast is good; especially, the always fabulous Agnes Moorehead. Despite a good story and an excellent cast, the plot limps along at points, and the shoddy production value is unignorable. Plus, the whole "Let's push Lucy to Florida in her wheelchair" thing is utterly nuts! However, the final scene is an unforgettable melodramatic moment that is fascinating just for the fact that Ball is the center of it. It makes it worth sitting through the many drawbacks of this film just to see the ending scene.