Min and Bill

Min and Bill is a comedy first and foremost, but it has tragic undertones as well. The two lead roles are a pair that are rather shop-worn by life, played to perfection by Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, neither of whom would ever be called glamorous, but who were both among the biggest draws of their day. Beery and Dressler worked like a charm on-screenand are totaly believable in this film and Marie Dressler won an Oscar for her performance. One of the best early efforts and very much worth your time to watch. Recommended.

The good leading performances of Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, plus the well-crafted dockside atmosphere, combine to make "Min and Bill" well worth seeing. Both Beery and Dressler have roles well-suited to them, and the two of them are thoroughly convincing in their relationship with each other. The actual story works all right, but mainly thanks to the leads and the settings. In itself, the story contains some worthwhile ideas, but some of the developments are too contrived to make it fully satisfying.

The main characters are interesting in their personalities, their imperfections, and in their relationships with each other and with the other characters. It's a pleasure to see Dressler and Beery in their scenes together, because with apparent ease they make use of - in ways subtle and not-so-subtle - the full range of possibilities in the way that Min and Bill relate to each other. Then too, the characters fit in seamlessly with the settings, which are also nicely done in themselves.

There's almost no need for much of a story, since it would be interesting just to see more of their daily lives. Most of the developments in the movie revolve around Dorothy Jordan's character, a young woman who has been brought up by Min. There are some thoughtful moments showing how she and Min feel about each other at different times, but at other times the script seems to miss some better possibilities. Dressler makes everything that Min does seem natural, but at times her skill is the only reason why it works. Thanks to her and Beery, it does work pretty well overall, and it is one of the better movies from the earliest years of sound films.

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" 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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Min and Bill, in my estimation, is the best comedy of 1930. The scintillating scenes between Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler are authentic and hilarious. Neither of these first-rate performers misses a beat with the great script provided by the film's writers. Dressler was so good, she won an Oscar for her performance. Beery is just as good in this film as he was in his two Oscar-winning roles that were to follow. Talk about a win-win situation. The viewer cannot wait for the next line from either of them with their ongoing battles on the screen. Audiences during the Depression LOVED this film, as it made them forget their considerable troubles for an hou or so.