March 23

Happy Birthday to Joan Crawford, Akira Kurosawa and Damon Runyon.

TCM is celebrating all three this month. Joan Crawford films on March 26, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai was on 22nd and the Damon Runyon films ran during the evening and overnight.

I watched Little Miss Marker and The Big Street for Damon Runyon birthday celebration. Is there anyone more adorable than Shirley Temple? She makes you laugh, cry and feel all warm inside. I can see why she was so popular. I am very glad that TCM now has some of the Fox films and can show a treasure like Little Miss Marker.

The Big Street stars Henry Fonda & Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball plays a singer in a nightclub with a gangster boyfriend. Henry Fonda plays a busboy. In a club Henry saves Lucille dog from being run over by a car. Henry gets fired for leaving his post. Lucille has him hired at the club where she sings. Henry has a crush on Lucille, he treats her with awe like her nickname “your highness“. Lucille is a tough primadonna singer in a second rate club. Henry acts as her personal willing servant. Lucille breaks up with her boyfriend, he backhands her and she falls down the steps. He spine is damaged and she can not walk. Her maid pawns the jewelry to pay the medical bills. The money runs out. Henry pays (without Lucille’s knowledge) so she won’t have to go to a charity hospital/clinic. Friends help raise money. When Lucille leaves the hospital she stays with Henry. They throw a party for her, give her a wheelchair and is reunited with a dog. Lucille is upset with people seeing her as weak and asks them to leave. Henry tries his best to make things better for her, but she is bed bound and afraid. Lucille and Henry follows his sister and her new husband to Florida. Henry pushes Lucille in her wheel chair on the road and tries to go through the Holland Tunnel. The police won’t let her walk in the tunnel. A police man states the wheelchair is not a vehicle. He sees Lucille in the wheelchair and says maybe it is a vehicle and asks the next person. This happens several times. A truck driver unhappy with the wait offers them a ride. They walk and hitch rides all the way to Florida.

In Florida Henry carries her around, wearing his white coat so people will think he is an attendant. She sees the man that she left the gangster for and he was very cold and overly polite to her. Lucille thinks that he did on purpose and is angry. Lucille doesn’t think Henry is good enough to take care of and asks him to leave. He gets a job as a busboy who is the same gangster from New York. Henry in a remarkable act of anger hits him. Lucille is sick more of mental anguish. I DVR this film. At this moment with the doctor gives details the screen goes black and EEEEEEEK EEEEEEEK EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK goes off. Weather Alert Test. Ugh. When the film comes back up, Henry is walking the streets. There has been a jewel robbery. Henry has his friend who was in the robbery business. He has retired so Henry decides to go on his own. He sneaks into a room to steal some jewelry. A couple comes in and Henry bluffs his way out of the room with the jewelry and dress. Henry takes the jewelry to the gangster who is actually the main jewel robber. Henry wants the club for a private party for Her Highness. The dress and the jewelry are recognized as Lucille is spotlighted by Ozzy Nelson. Lucille sings. Henry has asked his friends and the wait staff to get everyone to make a big deal about her. Henry changes into a tuxedo and joins the party. When Lucille wants to dance, Henry carries her around. She is able to take a few steps, but collapses. Henry carries her lifeless body out of the club.

Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball are really good in this film. Henry Fonda cares for only one thing Lucille Ball. Everything he does he does for her, no matter what she says to him or what he as to do to make her happy. Even after he has left her when she becomes ill he still cares. Lucille Ball is a strong willed woman use to being independent and the bell of the ball (no pun intended). After her injury, the people she considered friends were no longer her friends and Henry’s friends and relatives, didn’t really like her but were willing to put up with her due to Henry. One moment she is complacent, the next she is angry and the next she is sad/afraid.