A Post Production Company

Big Brown Eyes by Raoul Walsh (1936)

This is a bad ass noir, with a detective and his fast fast talking girlfriend break a case from two sides, while trying to get their life together started. This film is put together so well. There are some amazing sequences in a salon, where we get the story one bit at a time form different people talking, just brilliant. And not only is Cary Grant at his suave best, but Joan Bennett is fantastic, and not only his equal, but his better. She is bright shining star here, and a stronger character than many women in modern films. What a bad ass. This film is a must see if you get the chance.

Detective Dan Barr (Cary Grant) is a detective working on a major jewel robbery case, where a very rich woman has lost her jewels, and wants them back so the insurance won’t have to cover them. Dan’s girlfriend is Eve Fallon (Joan Bennett) and they have been together for 5 years. She works as a manicurist, but has an eye for news, and she ends up losing her job, and breaking up with Dan, thinking he is two timing her, though it is nothing of the sort, and she ends up getting a job at a newspaper, and quickly becoming a top newspaper man. When the thieves accidently kill a child in the park things start to heat up, and with no evidence, Dan needs Eve’s help to get the thief.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

BBE.jpg

Dan has his man, Cortig (Llyoyd Nolan) but he won’t admit to anything, so to get her story Eve prints a story in the newspaper that he has confessed, and then steals Dan’s gun, and when the crook leaves the station, she fires off a few rounds, and he runs back in and confesses to get police protection.

A slimy lawyer gets Cortig off the hook, so he quits the force to find his own justice. Eve meanwhile goes back to manicuring for manufacturing the story. Eve is giving a manicure, when she finds that a prominent citizen who works for the insurance is in fact the Jewel thief ring leader.

Dan is hot on the trail though, and gets mixed up with the buyers of the jewels who kill the child killer, but Dan uses his ventriloquism skills to make them think he is not dead, and escapes, and goes to help Eve who the thief is going to set up.

••••

This is a great film, not only well made, and written, but is Joan Bennett with her fast talking smarter than anyone attitude that really elevates this film to the status of a classic.

No comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

© 2011 Jonah Lee Walker Contact Me