Big City Blues

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Big City Blues follows Eric Linden’s Bud Reeves as he arrives in New York City and is almost immediately drawn into mischief and mayhem. It’s not surprising, ultimately, to learn that Big City Blues has been adapted from a stage play, as the movie, which runs a short but not short enough 63 minutes, suffers from a pervasively talky atmosphere that’s compounded by a curiously (and somewhat aggressively) uneventful narrative – with the bulk of the picture’s second act devoted to a wild party that eventually (and inevitably) goes horribly awry. Linden’s bland yet affable work as the central character ensures that, at least, Big City Blues remains watchable throughout, and it’s clear, too, that the actor receives able support from an eclectic periphery cast that includes Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, and Humphrey Bogart. The inclusion of a genuinely surprising incident at around the midway point does seem to promise a comparatively engrossing second half, although, perhaps unsurprisingly, the movie remains decidedly less-than-captivating right through to its anticlimactic finale – which confirms its place as an entirely forgettable entry within LeRoy’s expansive body of work.

** out of ****