Such a frustrating disappointment

hyped garbage

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is by all means a 10/10 film, the very kind that I watch an actor's entire filmography to find. After having watched the film, I was absolutely shocked to learn that it actually lost the studio money and that it hardly has a wikipedia article at all. Perhaps I appreciate things in a different way than some other people: a lot of reviewers here have written off this film as being second-rate, or something only that die-hard films of the protagonists would enjoy. The fact is that when watching this film, I couldn't help but say to myself "there's something amazing about this film." Essentially, it's the way that the camera would focus on faces in a titled way; it's how three or so times they utilized a scene of angled talking faces being done over in a barber/manicure salon to provide for distinct segmenting transitions. Though maybe most of all is the cast itself, I mean Joan Bennett and Cary Grant. Joan Bennett here, as apparently I gather she does in this period in general, plays that perfect sort of woman that only existed in this era. She's full of energy and does everything with such coordination and awareness, it's simply glorious to see in another person. Then there's the little things. The scene where the two young guys were called and they were laying on a bed sideways on their backs smoking, and how after that they started talking about airplanes and parachutes -- or when the baby-killer was listening to the radio about flowers, and seemed to have a genuine interest in horticulture in general. Or what about Cary Grant leaving the police station and scraping his cigarette against the engraved plaque in the wall, the one which exhorts the necessity of justice for freedom to work? The thing is, this is clearly a film where a ton of thought and innovation has been poured into it: this film was obviously someone's darling. Those little things like that aren't found in the normal routine film either past or modern, and that's what makes it so spectacular. By all means, this is a cult film, and it is absolutely "ahead of its time" while also being so quintessentially a part of it. A total thrill, and something I hope to see again.

The clumsily contrived "Big Brown Eyes" manages to hold some interest because of a fast pace and the magnetism of Cary Grant and Joan Bennett. She plays a wisecracking manicurist (too much a gum-chewing replica of her character in "Me and My Gal" opposite Spencer Tracy four years earlier) who engages in mutual flirtation with Grant's police detective. The plot involves a slippery jewel theft ring run by Walter Pidgeon (who would team wonderfully with Bennett 5 years later in Fritz Lang's "Man Hunt") that the cops just can't seem to crack. Bennett, driven to inexplicable frenzies of jealousy over Grant's innocent professional attentions to an older woman (Marjorie Gateson) whose diamonds have been stolen, bangs him over the head with a tray of utensils, is fired for bad behavior and promptly gets a job as a reporter with the town's newspaper. Overnight she is writing front page copy and leading the investigation into the jewel theft ring. Further absurdities take place until the predictable ending. Nowhere is there any reference to the anatomical features of the title, though one would assume they belong to the leading man, Cary Grant. The lack of connection between title and content is the perfect indicator of a tossed-together script. This Raoul Walsh-directed feature does what it can to supply action and speed and colorful incidentals in place of logic and wit and real dramatic substance. But despite the star power it can go only so far with such thin material.

Big Brown Eyes would have been a big fat bomb if Cary Grant hadn't carried the movie. Even in such an early picture (1936) his debonair, yet cheeky gentleman style is evident. Playing a detective seemed odd, yet no matter what role he is cast in, he makes it his own. His romantic interest, Joan Bennett, seemed a tad too hard around the edges to play his girlfriend, but she did manage some decent repertoire with Grant, especially when the packing scene in Grant's apartment. Overall, the picture is uneven. It can't decide if it is a serious crime/drama or a light comedy. There is a scene where a stray bullet kills a baby (intimated) and there is nothing funny about that. Another scene a man is shot while arranging roses. It's incongruent action like these scenes that makes this movie just short of unwatchable. I have yet to see a Cary Grant movie that I didn't like, and this one seems a practice for his all out great flick His Gal Friday. Big Brown Eyes is watchable, only because of Cary Grant.

Joan Bennett is a manicurist/reporter, and Cary Grant is a police detective. They have a few funny lines in "Big Brown Eyes"; and, along comes Walter Pidgeon with his gang of jewel thieves. The main problem, for me, was the clash between the humor, and the crime drama. The major crime is the accidental shooting of a baby, in its baby carriage, in the park - the scene give you a jolt, and kills the "comedy". Later, a man is shot after he delivers a witty line. It doesn't mix well.Ms. Bennett and Mr. Grant are the main attraction; they are fun to watch, and show promise as a movie "team". I did not care much for the story (or the slanted camera angles), however. ***** Big Brown Eyes (1936) Raoul Walsh ~ Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Walter Pidgeon