Big Brown Eyes (1936)

"Big Brown Eyes" is from 1936 and directed by Raoul Walsh. Joan Bennett was still a blond, and here, Cary Grant plays Dan Barr, a detective trying to recover someone's stolen jewels. Bennett plays his jealous manicurist girlfriend Eve, who takes a job on a newspaper after she quits manicuring.Walter Pidgeon plays Cortig, the head of the jewel theft ring which is also involved in the murder of a child who was hit by one of Cortig's stray bullets. He's joined by Lloyd Nolan. Thanks to his crooked attorney, Cortig is found not guilty. Dan is so upset he quits the force to go out on his own and get justice. Eve returns to her manicure job; both are very defeated by the trial.This is an okay, fast-moving film with Bennett playing what today would be considered a stereotype, you know, the gum-cracking, wisecracking blond. Grant is very handsome and slips easily into his role. He's not the "Cary Grant" persona quite yet. That's a couple of years away.I don't know who the Big Brown Eyes were, but it must have been Cary Grant. I saw Joan Bennett in person near the end of her life - she was very tiny, with very black hair, and had beautiful blue eyes.

Mega-stardom for Cary Grant still was ahead of him when he made this amiable romantic mystery with Joan Bennett, though the film is still well worth watching and is one of the better films in this era. By 1937-1939 he was pretty much a household name, with films such as THE AWFUL TRUTH, HOLIDAY and GUNGA DIN to his credit (BRINGING UP BABY was perhaps the best of the films of this time period, but in 1938 it was a financial flop).As for Joan, though much of the film I thought she was her sister Constance, as Joan died her hair platinum blonde for the film and she's best known as a raven-haired actress. It's amazing how much alike they look given the same hair styles. She, too, had better and more popular films in the future and so this film is one from both their transitional periods--clearly they were stars, but not of the first order.The film is a wonderful blend of comedy, romance and mystery and is one of the better examples of this odd genre combination. While it isn't up to the tip-top standards of THE THIN MAN (but what was?), it was certainly a very good film. What I liked best was the writing for Joan's character. She was a wonderful 'broad'--a worldly and wise lady who had some of the best one-liners I've ever heard in a film of the era. She was enticing AND mouthy at the same time--whatta dame! The mystery involves an evil private detective (Walter Pidgeon) who is not above a lot of larceny in order to make it in his racket. Not only does he find stolen items, but he's not above having others killed or dealing with crooks to get it. During most of the film, Grant plays a police detective (an odd casting decision, I know) who is in love with Joan AND is assigned to a case involving Pidgeon--though at this point, no one knows he's "Mr. Big" behind everything evil and corrupt Grant is investigating. Throughout the investigation, Joan in the role of a reporter, does amazingly well in helping her boyfriend and even though they snipe at each other a bit, they are a great screen couple.Overall, a delightful film that is close to earning an 8. Very well written and surprisingly good for an earlier Grant film.

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.

Raoul Walsh directs this fast-paced, fast talking comedy/drama in the style of THE FRONT PAGE--but despite the sassy dialog among criminals and assorted tough guys, as well as manicurist JOAN BENNETT who becomes a newspaper reporter, it's lacking in entertainment value despite a cast that includes CARY GRANT, WALTER PIDGEON, LLOYD NOLAN, DOUGLAS FOWLEY and ISABEL JEWELL.The mystery revolves around stolen diamonds and the killing of a baby by a stray bullet. Grant pretty much plays his usual self as a detective who happens to be the boyfriend of Bennett. The playful banter between them makes her sound like the prototype of the kind of wisecracking female she would play throughout all of her femme fatale roles. But here, she's blonde and pretty while playing her role in much the same style as Rosalind Russell played a girl reporter in THE FRONT PAGE.Strictly second-rate stuff as entertainment despite the good cast.