Big Brown Eyes

This little movie is more than forgotten. It is so mundane that no one has decided they can make a nickle from it, despite having some of the very same features and creative crew as projects that are celebrated. Cary Grant is about the same here, as in, say, "Charade."

I have to admit, it is flat. It all can be laid at the feet of the writer, I suppose.

These comedies are delicate. I suppose they cannot be engineered, like so much in film can. Oh, the execution can of course, but if the writer doesn't froth intuitively, nothing can spin it in after the fact.

But then again, this was the 30's where experimentation was the rule. And I suppose you need several failures before you get a "His Girl Friday" (which this resembles) out of so many tries.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

"Big Brown Eyes" is from 1936 and directed by Raoul Walsh. Joan Bennett was still a blond, and here, Cary Grant plays Dan Barr, a detective trying to recover someone's stolen jewels. Bennett plays his jealous manicurist girlfriend Eve, who takes a job on a newspaper after she quits manicuring.

Walter Pidgeon plays Cortig, the head of the jewel theft ring which is also involved in the murder of a child who was hit by one of Cortig's stray bullets. He's joined by Lloyd Nolan. Thanks to his crooked attorney, Cortig is found not guilty. Dan is so upset he quits the force to go out on his own and get justice. Eve returns to her manicure job; both are very defeated by the trial.

This is an okay, fast-moving film with Bennett playing what today would be considered a stereotype, you know, the gum-cracking, wisecracking blond. Grant is very handsome and slips easily into his role. He's not the "Cary Grant" persona quite yet. That's a couple of years away.

I don't know who the Big Brown Eyes were, but it must have been Cary Grant. I saw Joan Bennett in person near the end of her life - she was very tiny, with very black hair, and had beautiful blue eyes.

Big Brown Eyes (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Detective Danny Barr (Cary Grant) is trying to track down some jewel thieves but one day he is given the grim news that a baby has been shot and killed in a park. He finds that the two crimes are connected but can't get any real clues until his girlfriend Eve (Joan Bennett) goes to work for a newspaper.

Yes, you heard the plot of BIG BROWN EYES correct. It's a movie that features a baby being shot and killed. That was a rather dark subject for any period of films but you have to wonder how that plot point got past the Hayes Office just a year after they were coming down on certain topics. Apparently a film with a baby being shot was okay as long as the male and female stars weren't kissing for over five seconds.

As far as the film goes, director and co-writer Raoul Walsh does a very good job at mixing several genres together and in the end they all work quite well. You've got the mystery of the jewel thieves and the baby murder. You've got the back and forth romance between Grant and Bennett. You've also got some comedy thrown in for good measure, although the killing of the baby is a tad bit dark for the rest of the picture. All of these elements work very well and it plays out quite nicely.

Grant was yet a major star but you can see the comic timing really starting to come out here. I've been going through his films in the order that he made them and this role was clearly one of the best of his early career. He got to play the tough cop and do it nicely but his comic and romantic timing is that classic Grant. Bennett is also very good in her supporting role and makes for some good charm and there's no question that the two leads have some nice chemistry. Walter Pidgeon, Lloyd Nolan and Joe Sawyer are also good in their supporting bits.

BIG BROWN EYES isn't all that well known, which is a tad bit shocking considering the cast, the director and the fact that it's a good movie. The film even has some fun with Grant having him play a ventriloquist. There's even more fun to be had when Bennett says a classic Mae West line to him.

Big Brown Eyes would have been a big fat bomb if Cary Grant hadn't carried the movie. Even in such an early picture (1936) his debonair, yet cheeky gentleman style is evident. Playing a detective seemed odd, yet no matter what role he is cast in, he makes it his own. His romantic interest, Joan Bennett, seemed a tad too hard around the edges to play his girlfriend, but she did manage some decent repertoire with Grant, especially when the packing scene in Grant's apartment. Overall, the picture is uneven. It can't decide if it is a serious crime/drama or a light comedy. There is a scene where a stray bullet kills a baby (intimated) and there is nothing funny about that. Another scene a man is shot while arranging roses. It's incongruent action like these scenes that makes this movie just short of unwatchable. I have yet to see a Cary Grant movie that I didn't like, and this one seems a practice for his all out great flick His Gal Friday. Big Brown Eyes is watchable, only because of Cary Grant.

And in that of Raoul Walsh, as well. The early scenes, which try really hard to be cute, show no influence of Walsh. When it gets more into the career of policeman Grant, we see some fast-paced action and it makes sense as a Walsh project. Sort of.

Grant was young and hadn't become a major star yet. He looks great and does a creditable job. His female co-star is Joan Bennett. Now there was an interesting actress: She worked with all the great foreign directors when they came to Hollywood. She made several movies for Fritz Lang. She worked for Max Ophuls. She worked for Jean Renoir.

Here she is a blonde, like sister Constance. She's fine.

Walter Pidgeon looks young too. He is cast in the sort of role Robert Montgomery or Warren William got more frequently: He's a charming crook.

When the movie begins, Bennett is a manicurist. Then, suspiciously quickly, she's an ace newspaper reporter. Was this little film assembled from various attempts or is the plot just a little unconvincing? There are many wonderful reaction shots that move quickly from close-up of one bit player or extra to close-up of another. I think the most famous use of this sort of extreme close-up is that of the chatty woman in "Brief Encounter." But the ones here are great. Indeed, they elevate what is essentially a trivial movie up a notch or two.