The Big Street (1942)

So much average

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

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 is one of the few films that cast Lucille Ball as the leading lady. She had an iffy relationship with films before fame found her with "I Love Lucy" and watching this film I can see why. She has this sparkle and this charm, but for some reason her power is not charged to 100%. She plays the gangsters moll very well, and you can easily see her fitting the part of the villain's-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold, but that isn't who she is here. She's just snarky and beneath everyone.She is lovely to look at and she does attempt to encapsulate and encompass herself in the character, but it doesn't work. I unfortunately believe that Ball is more of a character actress than a leading lady. She steals the show as the Best Friend or wacky neighbor, but in the spotlight her sparkling light fails to shine through. The script is also promising, but the last forty five minutes or so derail the story and you're wondering what went wrong. Henry Fonda is horribly cast and isn't very believable as the gullible chump who is infatuated with Ball's character. He's gaunt and sallow and looks far too menacing to be the good guy. This movie sounded promising, and you will watch it eagerly for the cast and premise but it will only let you down. This is a prime example of mediocrity during the Golden Age of film, and will prove the point that not all "old movies" are "classics". 5.7/10

To laugh at Lucy is not to know her as a dramatic actress, and in this Damon Runyeon drama, she is at her dramatic, bitchiest best. The wise-cracking girl of "Stage Door" (1937) has grown up, and here she is a gangster's moll nightclub singer. Busboy Henry Fonda is enamored of her to the point where he refers to her as "Your Highness", a nickname Lucy's maid Louise Beavers goes mad over. "Coming, Your Highness!" she responds to Ball's "Hey Ruby, move your big fat feet!", Beavers adding on that boisterous laugh that jolts her own heart full of gold. But to Lucy, Fonda's "Little Pinks" has a heart full of mush, something she'll need when her "daddy" (Barton MacLane) pushes her down a flight of stairs after she threatens to leave him and blames it on the fact that she was drunk. Her Broadway pals all disappear on her with the exception of Fonda and Beavers. Broke and desperate, Ball moves in to Fonda's small apartment, continues to abuse him, and lives off the champagne and caviar that he scrapes together nightly so she can continue to live in her dream world. Her desire is to go to Florida so she can see the man she really loves (William T. Orr), a socialite bore not worthy of her time. Fonda quits his job and pushes her there in her wheel chair, where his pals Violet (Agnes Moorehead) and Nicely Nicely Johnson (Eugene Palette) have opened a ocean front burger dive. It is there that Ball learns the true meaning of total unselfishness, something she had earlier been ignoring in her own spirit.Yes, the idea of Henry Fonda pushing Lucille Ball from New York to Florida in a wheelchair might sound absurd, but somehow, the movie pulls it off. To see Lucy playing such a hard character might be difficult for her comedy fans to accept. More than 20 years after her death, Lucy still reigns as TV's top female clown. But before that, she had a very versatile movie career, singing and dancing in "Best Foot Forward" and "DuBarry Was a Lady", and clowning around Lucy Ricardo style in "Her Husband's Affairs" and "The Fuller Brush Girl". This is Lucy at her cinematic best. Henry Fonda seems a bit out of sorts as the busboy whose unrequited love for her goes unnoticed. Two years after his dramatic triumph in "The Grapes of Wrath", this is almost a step down for him, but he does so with noble results. And that supporting cast. Wow. Agnes Moorehead goes from the shy Violet who replaces Eugene Palette in an eating contest to his nagging wife, and is very funny. Palette is adorable here, playing Nicely Nicely much different than Stubby Kaye would later do on Broadway and in the film version of "Guys and Dolls". MacLane is appropriately mean, Beavers loving, and Ray Collins the Greek Chorus of the plot. Add on Marion Martin as a Florida socalite and Sam Levene, who would be Nathan Detroit 8 years later when "Guys and Dolls" made it to Broadway. All in all, this is a film that can't be skipped.

"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.