Themes: Musician's Life, Unrequited Love, Mafia Life
Main Cast: Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Barton MacLane, Eugene Pallette
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
Lucille Ball delivers the finest dramatic performance of her career in this satisfying adaptation of Damon Runyon's The Big Street. Ball is cast as Gloria, aka "Your Highness," the vain and thoroughly selfish star attraction of gangster Case Ables' (Barton MacLaine) New York nightclub. Henry Fonda costars as busboy Little Pinks, who worships Gloria from afar. When Gloria is crippled by a fall downstairs-caused by a blow across the face by the sadistic Ables-Little Pinks selflessly waits upon the invalided and doggedly ungrateful songstress hand and foot. So devoted to Gloria is Pinks that he's willing to pilot her wheelchair from Manhattan to Florida so that she can renew her romance with callow playboy Decatur Reed (William Orr). Touched by Pinks' loyalty, his Runyonesque friends-Professor B (Ray Collins), Horsethief (Sam Levene), Mr. and Mrs. Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Eugene Pallette, Agnes Moorehead) and all the rest-raise enough money to open a Florida nightclub so that Gloria can put up a brave front. The ending is at once the most lachrymose and most effectively moving scene in the film, one that can only be spoiled if detailed here. Produced by Damon Runyon himself, The Big Street is one of the few completely successful filmed Runyon adaptations-as well as Lucille Ball's finest hour (and a half) on-screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Damon Runyon specialized in "parables of Broadway," and although sometimes those parables transferred very effectively to other media -- e.g., Guys and Dolls -- other times they did not. The Big Street is not bad, but it is marred by some excessive sentimentality and plot contrivances that strain credulity. While the figure of a man willing to give up everything for the woman he loves is a familiar one, as presented here it comes across as slightly ludicrous (through no fault of Henry Fonda's), and the whole idea of the trip to Florida comes across as unbelievable. (Interestingly, despite the fact that the sappy ending is equally unbelievable and manipulative, it somehow works.) What saves Street and makes its excesses tolerable is the cast. Lucille Ball pulls no punches in delineating a vain, selfish and exasperating character, and is clearly not afraid to risk alienating audience sympathies when required. It's a brave change-of-pace for Ball and works beautifully. Fonda projects an innocence and commitment that are invaluable and almost convince the viewer that a person really could be so self-sacrificing for such an unworthy person. And Agnes Moorehead and Eugene Pallette are an unexpected delight. Fonda and Ball would team up again many years later in Yours, Mine and Ours. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Alfred Herman - Art Director, Chester Hale - Choreography, Renie - Costume Designer, Clem Beauchamp - First Assistant Director, Irving G. Reis - Director, Willaim Hamilton - Editor, Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Mort Greene - Songwriter, Harry Revel - Songwriter, Perc Westmore - Makeup, Mel Berns - Makeup, Russell Metty - Cinematographer, Damon Runyon - Producer, Claude E. Carpenter - Set Designer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Vernon Walker - Special Effects, Richard VanHessen - Sound/Sound Designer, Leonard Spigelgass - Screenwriter, Damon Runyon - Short Story Author
