Aggie Appleby

Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Agnes "Aggie" Appleby (Wynne Gibson) is kicked out of her room when her tough guy boyfriend (William Gargan) goes to jail. Broke and out on the streets, Aggie meets the soft-spoken and kind Adoniram (Charles Farrell) who begins to fall for her but she plans to make him into a tough guy. With such an off-beat title it seems like this film would be better known to film buffs but it has pretty much been forgotten to the ages. This is too bad because it's actually a quite clever little film that has a few nice twists along the way. The film starts off as a comedy as we see Aggie trying to turn this wimp into a man. This includes getting rid of his glasses, getting him a "tough" job and then making him a fighter. She's able to turn this nice guy into the type of tough guy that she likes but things get messy once they fall in love and then her ex gets out of prison. I was really surprised by how effective the entire film was. The early scenes are full of great comedy and especially one sequence where Adoniram wins his fight by the luckiest of ways. The middle portion of the film turns into a romantic drama but this here also works thanks in large part to the two stars. Both Gibson and Farrell are so good together and so believable in their roles that you can't help but fall for both of them. Farrell was extremely impressive with the way he plays this rather soft character and he's also believable once he starts to change. Gargan is a blast as the rather dumb but tough boyfriend and Zasu Pitts is fine as the girl's best friend. I'm not going to spoil the ending but it too is something you just won't expect.

AGGIE APPLEBY, MAKER OF MEN is certainly a very fun little gem that deserves to be rediscovered.

The Depression era comes alive in this film about a waitress (Wynne Gibson) who falls in love with a street-fighting hoodlum, Red Branagan (William Gargan). When Branagan goes to prison for beating up some cops, Aggie is left broke and on her own, eventually meeting Adoniram Schlump (Charles Farrell), a rich sissy from Upstate trying to make it in the big city. Under Aggie's tutelage, Schlump takes on Branagan's identity and his combativeness. Then the real Branagan gets out of prison....

Gibson and Gargan are particularly good as a couple of tough New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet, and Farrell (reminiscent here of Harold Lloyd, whom he slightly resembled) comes alive as a neurotic rich boy who finds success as a brawler. The film's use of slang is especially entertaining -- dated, but colorful. (Aggie tells Schlump: "Stop talking like a lollipop. Use some words with hair on them.")

Can't help wondering whether the film's clever title would have been possible a year or two later, with the coming of the Production Code.

"Aggie Appleby" sounds like the name of a character that should be in a series, like "Torchy Blane" or "Maisie Ravier." But, alas, this is it. It makes one wonder how playwright Joseph Kesselring came up with such a name for this character in the first place, and if it was a tribute to somebody he knew.

This film occasionally betrays its stage play origins, but that's not bad. If you're a fan of this genre and time period, you've seen this story many times. Yet, there are just enough variations and plot twists to keep this interesting, which is a credit to the script. It's always interesting to see how a script writer gets out of seemingly dead end plot threads.

There are many well-known actors in this movie; but I watched it in part because I was unfamiliar with the female lead, Wynne Gibson, who does credit to her part. And there's a close-up of her with co-star Farrell which brings out the beauty in her hair and helps define the term, "silver screen."

I'm always surprised when I watch Charles Farrell in one of his early films. He was so different -- in appearance, in voice, and in mannerisms -- than the mature actor I watched in "My Little Margie" on TV. Here, he plays the romantic lead, the naive youth educated by Gibson's woman of experience.

And Jane Darwell...how many times did she play The Landlady (or The Ma, or Mrs. So-and-So)? Too many to count! She had the part, however small, down pat.

Finally, nobody can twitch her nose (indeed, half her face) as Zasu Pitts does here. She gives Elizabeth Montgomery (and now Nicole Kidman) a run for the money. (Look for it in her scene with Farrell on the stairs, or you may miss it.)

My only complaint with this movie is one I have with many from its time (and even with some from today), i.e., jerky editing. There are a number of scene transitions where the break between takes is all too obvious -- characters out of position and out of look.

I gave this movie a middling score. Had I rated it when it was made, I might have assigned it a point higher, but I'm too spoiled, perhaps, by advances in movie-making that have developed since. Still, in my opinion, this movie is well worth the seventy-some minutes it takes to watch.

Wynne Gibson's live-in boyfriend, roughneck William Gargan, gets sent up the river for hospitalizing a bunch of coppers. She falls in with prissy Charles Farrell, who's trying to make it on his own, and remakes him in the image of Gargan, even giving him the same name.

It's a chance for Farrell to do some acting, showing off the sort of two-toned performance that would win the Oscar regularly -- especially when the winner had a disability. It's doubtless the fact this is a comedy that kept it out of the running. The real fun is in the supporting characters: Zasu Pitts as Miss Gibson's sister, and Betty Furness, surprisingly good in a small role as Farrell's fiancee. With Blanche Friderici, Brooks Benedict, and Jane Darwell.

Wynne Gibson just shines in this film. She was 35 when she starred in it, and it was one of her few starring roles. 35 isn't old now, but it was considered rounding the top of the hill in 1933. 35 year old grandmothers were common at the time. Her character is brassy and blonde and she's seen the tough side of life and doesn't let it get her down, yet she's vulnerable.

Wynne is in the title role of Aggie, and she falls for the all muscles - as in even in his head - Red Branahan (William Gargan) when he apparently stands up for her in a fight. Heck, I don't even think he knew what the fight was about, he just liked to brawl and in this case it happened to be for a worthy cause.

Next scene and the two are living together and posing as married. You couldn't get away with coming out and saying that even in the precode era, but it is implied in all kinds of ways. And then Red gets in a fist fight with the police and they take him away. Plus he forgot to grab his rent money during the fight. So Aggie is out on the street. Her friend Sybby (Zasu Pitts) is a maid in a boarding house, so she lets Aggie catch a nap in a room where the boarder is supposed to be out for a long while, but then he comes back.

They say the best sales people are those whose pitch you never see coming, and somehow Aggie angles it so that she has a permanent home in the boarder's flat plus she becomes his mentor and what you'd call a "life coach" today. . By the way, the boarder is a young man who is the opposite of what she had in Red. Weak willed, naive, gentle, well schooled but totally not street wise. He is a rich guy raised by a maiden aunt trying to make it on his own in the big city. This is a great role for Charles Farrell as "Schlumpy". His high pitched voice is not what audiences expected in the switch from silents to sound film, and it hurt his career, but that voice works for him here.

Aggie's weakness? She can't seem to figure what she wants in a man. She tries to make Schlumpy over in the image of Red, but she likes his gentleness. But then it's hard to only bake half a cake. Meanwhile, Red is not going to be in jail forever for some fist to cuffs with the police. Not in a rough part of New York City.

How does this all work out? Watch and find out. The script is interesting in concept and the best part of it are the non stop bawdy one liners that Wynne Gibson dishes out in rapid succession from beginning to end. A year later, with the production code in force she would have been left speechless by the censors. It's a shame the Warner Archive hasn't gotten around to releasing this one yet. Highly recommended.