Central Park

Directed by John G. Adolfi, Central Park follows several characters as they encounter problems and misadventures within the title locale. Filmmaker Adolfi, armed with a screenplay by Ward Morehouse and Earl Baldwin, delivers a perpetually erratic yet basically watchable endeavor that benefits from its solid performances and smattering of engrossing sequences, as, in terms of the latter, Adolfi elicits stirring work from Joan Blondell that remains a consistent highlight within the proceedings. (Costars Wallace Ford and Guy Kibbee fare quite well, also.) And while the narrative’s episodic bent does ensure that certain stretches fare a whole lot better than others, with the recurring emphasis on the mistreatment of several zoo animals certainly standing as a low point in the proceedings, Central Park generally comes off as an agreeable-enough piece of work that sustains the viewer’s interest for the duration of its appreciatively brief running time. (If nothing else, the film is worth a look for the surprisingly brutal interlude wherein a man is killed by a lion.)

**1/2 out of ****