Il vagabondo e la ballerina

Here is a film set entirely in or very near a 1930's train station. Thousands of people moving in and through, each with a story. You would have to be as old as I am to understand that train depots, especially in big cities, were nearly as big and even busier than the airports of today. The film has a dark and harsh quality, which in many ways, is typical of the period. Here is an out of work chorus girl (Joan Blondell) desperate to get $54.00 for a ticket to Salt Lake City, almost willing to prostitute herself to get it; here is a pair of hobos (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Guy Kibbee) willing to steal clothes and finding money therein. They run afoul of a counterfeiter, a sexual sadist and the law, and through a series of highly unlikely coincidences manage to keep the plot hopping. This film has some superb camera work, great editing, and some wonderfully underplayed acting, especially by Joan Blondell. It's no wonder she was such a workhorse for Warner's. She could pretty much do it all. It's well worth the hour or so spent watching.

...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.

"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.

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 a 1932 precode film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Guy Kibbee, and Joan Blondell.

Chick (Fairbanks) and Scrap Iron Scratch (Kibbee) are two hobos during the Depression, hungry and hanging around Union Depot to beg for money and look for opportunities to get money.

The first opportunity comes in the form of a conductor's uniform hanging in the mens room, which Chick steals by sticking a pole through the mens room window. Then he gets a real windfall - a man (Frank McHugh) leaves his suitcase in the mens room. Chick chases him to return it, but the man is gone. Inside is everything Chick will need to look like the handsome man that he is: a suit, shaving cream, shaver. He emerges from the mens room looking great. He also has money that was in the suit pocket.

He goes to a diner and orders soup to nuts and racks up a huge bill of $1.75. I can't believe the prices in those days. He sees a forlorn looking young woman in the station. It's Ruth (Joan Blondell) who needs $64 to get to Salt Lake City to join a show that she was in before she broke her ankle. And she'll do anything to get it. That's fine with Chick. He takes her to a private dining room and makes a pass. She tries, but she can't go through with it. She finally tells Chick her full story, that besides needing to get to the show, she's running from a creep that lived in her rooming house. Chick believes her and says he'll buy her ticket.

Somewhere along the line, he meets up with Scratch, who has found a wallet with a pawn ticket. The pawn ticket is for a violin in a case. Chick takes it to the pawnbroker across the way. While the pawnbroker is taking care of another customer, Chick opens the violin and finds $13,000 -- the equivalent of nearly a quarter of a million dollars today. Frankly, I could use the $13,000 now, and it's over 80 years later.

Chick hides the violin case and leaves Scratch in charge of it and takes some of the money with him. And there the fun begins.

This is a fast-moving, entertaining story that leaves one with a tinge of sadness. I am a huge fan of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. I think he was a very underrated actor. He's marvelous here, as effective as a hobo as he is as a dapper gentleman. Both his comedy and dramatic work are marvelous. Joan Blondell is adorable -- so pretty and sweet, but with an edge that shows that the character has been through hard times.

Precode has a more liberal view of sex. People have it, for one thing. And you don't have to be married. Fairbanks is fairly cavalier about it and angry when Blondell doesn't come across.

Very good movie - if you see that it's on TCM, don't miss it. I would have liked a less downbeat ending, but hey, it was the Depression.