Dockside

Film: Min and Bill
Format: Streaming video from TCM Watch on laptop.

More than most films, comedies are a product of their time. What one generation finds funny, the next generation scratches its head at. Such it is with Min and Bill. Listed as both a comedy and a drama, the comedic elements of the film are the broad slapstick style that actually work better in silent films than they do in early talkies. The initial comedy scene, which involves one of our title characters hijacking a boat, is the sort of thing I’m talking about here.

We establish our three major characters right away. Bill (Wallace Beery) is a fisherman who lives at a dockside boarding house operated by Min (Marie Dressler). The two have a comically antagonist relationship, but it’s evident within a few moments that the two are extremely fond of each other. While Min loves her boarding house and Bill, too, the real joy in her life is Nancy (Dorothy Jordan). Nancy was abandoned by her mother as an infant and has been raised by Min to assist around the boarding house. Nancy’s age is indeterminate; all we know is that she’s very young; 14 or 15 would be a good guess.

The Big House

Format: Turner Classic Movies on rockin’ flatscreen.

I suppose there are enough prison films that it forms its own subgenre. It’s not one I think of a lot, except to say that in my world, the best prison films are military prison films. A significant percentage of the great World War II films are set in prison. I’m less apt to get all excited when the prison in question is one for hardened criminals The Big House is one of the first films to show life in prison. According to the story, authoress Frances Marion spent time visiting San Quentin to get a handle on the dialogue and endured all manner of verbal abuse from the inmates and the guards both. In truth, that might actually be a better story than what we’re given on the screen.

Kent (Robert Montgomery) is sent away for 10 years for manslaughter, having killed a man in a drunken car accident. Kent is, as many of us would be, not really suited for prison, and things are immediately made worse when he’s housed with hardened killer Butch (Wallace Beery) and professional thief Morgan (Chester Morris). Butch tries to take advantage of the new fish, but Morgan appears to have something approaching a heart and looks out for the new kid. This doesn’t change the reality that Kent finds himself drawn to Butch and distrustful of his new guardian angel. Admittedly, a big part of Morgan’s heart growing three sizes is Kent’s attractive sister Anne (Leila Hyams).