Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Big Street - 1942 - DVD

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Here's Lucille Ball in an early stage of her career opposite Henry Fonda, in a riches to rags sort of story where Gloria Lyons (Lucille Ball) loses her crown as a popular nightclub singer after her bastardly boyfriend pushes her down the stairs and cripples her. Pinks (Henry Fonda) is the sensitive, adoring fan and bus boy at the club who takes her in to care for—but Ms. Lyons is a tempest and demands the finest food (champagne and caviar) even on his meager salary. The story doesn't end up as compelling as we hope, and the outcome is as you'd expect—with Ms. Lyons at the final realization that her demands upon Pinks and her taste for high fashion and culinary fare just don't wash. Still crippled in a wheelchair she resigns herself to a lifestyle within her means, and a sudden appreciation for poor Pinks who she's pushed around all these months. Story aside, it's worth a glimpse for Lucille Ball in her youthful svelte figure with sparkling gowns dangling from her torso. The woman is stunning, quite honestly—a fact probably drowned out by her slap-sticky comedy career. This wasn't her first film (it was actually her 51st film), but Fonda, already an established and high profile actor was reluctant to work with her because of it. Looking at her filmography it's clear she was a real rags-to-riches story herself. Picking up bit parts as early as 1933, and finally reaching her pinnacle with the I Love Lucy TV series.

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