La poupée brisée

For fans of Lucy, Ball's role here takes real getting used to. "Her Highness" character is shrewish and generally not very likable. Ball does, however, get to show some very real chops outside her usual comedic range. As a result, I've got a new appreciation of her as an actress as well as a comedienne.

The movie itself is undermined by a weak central focus. Neither Ball's Her Highness nor Fonda's servile bus boy is easy to identify with. Thus, it's hard to sympathize with the overbearing HH even after she's crippled. Nor is Little Pink's (Fonda) utterly selfless devotion understandable given the imperious way she treats him. As a result, the movie's core flounders. A charitable view might take the movie as a fairy tale where the unlikely bus boy, a prince in his sudden formal wear, rescues the crippled princess if only for a moment.

Of course, being a Damon Runyon creation, there's the usual number of street-smart Broadway mugs. So the margins shine with such colorful types as Palette, Levene, Collins, et al. Also, catch dragon lady Agnes Moorehead in a rare sympathetic role (Shumberg); plus premier eccentric Hans Conreid as the grumpy headwaiter. And for folks interested in 50's TV, there's Wm. T. Orr as handsome socialite Decatur Reed. This is the same Orr who produced many of the popular hour-long TV shows of the late 50's, such as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Lawman, et al. I've seen his name for years, never thinking he might show up on screen.

All in all, the only reason to catch this 80-minute pastiche is for Lucy's surprising performance and the colorful peripheral characters. Otherwise, it's pretty forgettable, especially for fans of Fonda.

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.

"The Big Street" was not a major hit when first released but the critics at the time all noted Lucille Ball's superb star-making performance as one of the all-time nastiest women ever to reach the big screen. Lucy was already a minor star thanks to a string of popular B-grade comedies and dramas but this film cemented her stardom and brought her to MGM where she reached an early peak the next year. The film is sentimental and does have some plot points that have to be swallowed but Ball's great acting and chemistry with a splendid Fonda makes this tale of unrequited love work. Fonda plays a kind innocent busboy who falls madly in-love with a crippled chanteuse(Ball). The last scene on the dance floor is unforgettable. Why RKO did not get Lucy an Oscar nomination for this performance is a crime. All the critics at the time hailed her work in this but it just slipped under the rug when the film posted only small profits. This was the kind of role Bette Davis made her own but Ball does it without Davis' habit of falling into mannerisms. Agnes Moorehead is also excellent as Fonda's concerned friend. Beautiful cinematography makes Ball look incredible in her close-ups. Worth a look but overlook the occasional mawkish elements. Lucy makes it a must.

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 ****

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.