The Big Street **** (1942, Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane, Eugene Palette, Agnes Moorehead, Sam Levene) – Classic Movie Review 9508

Director Irving Reis’s 1942 American RKO Radio Pictures drama film The Big Street stars Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Barton MacLane, Eugene Palette, Agnes Moorehead and Sam Levene. Ball considered the film her favourite. It premiered on 13 August 1942 in New York City.

Damon Runyon’s 1940 Collier’s Weekly short story Little Pinks about a nervous busboy Augustus Pinkerton II, aka Little Pinks (Fonda), falling for a sour, cold-hearted nightclub singer Gloria Lyons (Ball) crippled in a fall by New York City nightclub owner mobster Case Ables (MacLane), who pushes her down a flight of stairs, comes to the screen with its exuberance, sentimentality and winsomeness intact – perhaps because the author also produced the film.

The cute stew of serious gamblers, funny mobsters and all-conquering love makes it seem like an entertaining dress rehearsal for Guys and Dolls.

Grabbing her chance for stardom, and scoring a triumph, a serious-minded Lucy is lovable playing a self-centred character, an ideally paired Fonda is very touching here, and Palette just perfect as Nicely Nicely Johnson, with Sam Levene enormous comic relief fun as the erudite gambler, the Horsethief.

Also in the cast are Agnes Moorehead as Violette Shumberg, Marion Martin as Mimi Venus, George Cleveland as Colonel Samuel Venus, William T Orr as Decatur Reed, Ray Collins as the Professor, Sam Levene as the Horsethief, Vera Gordon as Mrs Lefkowitz, Virginia Weidler, Ozzie Nelson, Marion Martin, Hans Conried, and William Orr.

The Big Street is a nickname for Broadway, where the movie starts.

Nicely Nicely Johnson also appears in Guys and Dolls. Levene played Nathan Detroit in the original 1950 Broadway production of Guys and Dolls.

Runyon wanted Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard for the lead roles, but they refused. However, Lombard suggested her friend Lucille Ball and Runyon offered her the role against pressure from RKO executives. It was a lucky break. Ball recalled: ‘Nothing much seemed to be happening for me at the studio. My $1000 weekly paycheck came regularly, but I was still a regular among the B [movies]’.

Fonda was a former boyfriend and Ball’s husband Desi Arnaz lingered nervously and jealously on the set.

The vocals for Gloria’s song ‘Who Knows?’ by Harry Revel and Mort Greene, are performed by Martha Mears. Gloria sings it in Case’s Manhattan club and again with Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra in the Miami nightclub.

Turner Home Entertainment released it on Region 1 DVD on 19 June 2007.

The Big Street is directed by Irving Reis, runs 88 minutes, is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Leonard Spigelgass, based on Damon Runyon’s short story Little Pinks, is shot in black and white by Russell Metty, is produced by Damon Runyon and is scored by Roy Webb.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9508

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