Big City Blues (1932)

Big City Blues
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Ward Morehouse and Lillie Hayward from Morehouse’s play
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 9

Cousin ‘Gibby’ Gibboney: Here you are, baby. Saturate the bridgework.

Joan Blondell brings a spot of joy to even the saddest of stories.

Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) is a naive young man from small town USA. He decides to go to New York with his small inheritance in his pocket. He is promptly set upon by his cousin “Gibby” Gibboney (Walter Catlett), a fast-talking con artist, who is intent on parting Bud from as much of his money as possible. Gibby talks Bud into holding a lavish party in his posh hotel complete with a lot of “the good stuff”. Prime attractions will be chorus girls including Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell) and other theater people.

Bud falls hard for Vida, who is possibly the only honest character in the entire movie. But Bud’s life will change forever when guests Humphrey Bogart and Lyle Talbot (neither of whom are credited) get into a drunken brawl in which one of the girls ends up dead. Bud becomes the prime suspect. Vida stands by her man.

This is about an hour long and fairly entertaining. Key moment for me was when the guests were arriving for the party and a handsome young man caught my eye. I thought that looks like Humphrey Bogart! And it was! It was his first film for Warner Bros. which took another four years to sign him to a long term contract.  I can’t understand why neither he nor Lyle Talbot were credited when they both had key parts and several lines of dialogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGKSM9Dv-t4