Movies

LUCY'S MOVIE GUIDE

The Bowery

MOVIE #2

The Bowery (1933)

(featuring Lucille Ball as Blonde Bit Part)


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In this rough-and-tumble action comedy, Chuck Connors (Wallace Beery) and Steve Brodie (George Raft) are friendly rivals on New York's Bowery in the 1890s.

Connors owns a fancy tavern and looks after a streetwise kid named Swipes McGurk (Jackie Cooper), while Brodie is a daredevil willing to do nearly anything to get the better of Connors. When both men fall in love with Lucy Calhoun (Fay Wray), who has fallen on hard times, Brodie takes her under his wing and helps get her back on her feet.

Connors is furious that his rival has won her heart, so he goads Brodie into doing something spectacular to prove his love for her, jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. Reckless but not stupid, Brodie has no intention of making the jump and plans to use a dummy instead, but when Connors and his henchmen show up to make sure that Brodie doesn't back down, the dare is turned into a wager, and Brodie emerges the new owner of Connors' bar after successfully making the jump.

Special Notes: In real life, George Raft and Wallace Beery were not nearly so friendly as their characters: Raft persuaded director Raoul Walsh to hire a number of his underworld cronies as extras, which irritated Beery no end. When the two actors had a fight scene, Beery refused to hold back, and the staged fistfight quickly turned into a for-real battle royale.

Movie #2
Film Date: 1933

Release Date: October 7, 1933
Film Type: comedy/drama
Film Color: black/white
Studio: 20th Century/United Artists
Film Length: 92 minutes

Director/Producer:
Raoul Walsh (Director),
Darryl F. Zanuck (Producer)

Character Role:
Lucille Ball (Blonde Bit Part) (uncredited)

Supporting Cast:
Wallace Beery (Chuck Connors)
George Raft (Steve Brodie)
Jackie Cooper (Swipes McGurk)
Fay Wray (Lucy Calhoun)
Pert Kelton (Trixie Odbray)
George Walsh (John L. Sullivan)
Oscar Apfel (Ivan Rummel)
Ferdinand Munier (Honest Mike)
Herman Bing (Max Herman)
Lillian Harmer (Carrie Nation)
Tammany Young (Himself)
John Kelly (Lumpy Hogan)
Harvey Parry (Raft's Double)
Hal Price (Editor)
John Bleifer (Mumbo the Mute)
Esther Muir (The Tart)
Fletcher Norton (Googy Cochran)
Kid Broad (Pugs)
Frank Moran (Bettor)
Sailor Vincent
Irving Bacon (Hick with Tailors)
Harry Semels (Artist)
Phil Tead (Tout)
Andrew Tombes (Shill)
Harry Tenbrook
Jimmy Conlin (Enlistee)
Charles "Heinie" Conklin (Drunk/Fight Spectator)
Pat Harmon
Jack Herrick
Lester Dorr (Cynic)
Kit Guard (Arsonist/Henchman)
Bobby Dunn (Cockeyed Violinist)
Frank Mills (Fireman)
Charles McAvoy (Waiter)
Charles Lane (Doctor)
Charles B. Middleton (Detective)
Harold Huber (Slick)
John Ince (Crony)
James Burke (Recruiting Sergeant)
Fred Kelsey (Detective Kelsey)