Vanity Street

This zippy little pre-code from Columbia is stark and primitive in many ways, but offers many pre-code pleasures; gruff cop Charles Bickford lives a lonely, spartan life and when he comes across a starving young woman in trouble offers her a chocolate milkshake (with two eggs!) and a place to sleep--the young woman, played sympathetically by winsome Helen Chandler, ultimately manages to find her way into a current Follies show, and has the opportunity to move up the dating ladder--but still yearns for the good natured police Daddy who fails to see what she has to offer. Meanwhile, various salacious relationships are hinted at, one a gigolo blackmail of an older woman, and another involving blonde sexpot Mayo Methot (later half of the "battling Bogarts"), who plays a hard-boiled fallen star form the Follies ( who dominates every scene she' s in by sheer force of will--this dame spells trouble with a capital "T"! ) Not really too much mystery here, but a fast-paced pre-code available in crisp new transfer and an entertaining way to spend a nostalgic afternoon at the movies

Helen Chandler needs a place to sleep, so she tosses a brick through a window, figuring they'll feed her in jail. Detective Charles Bickford realizes how desperate she is, so he puts her up at his apartment and gets her a job on the chorus line of a revue. When headliner Mayo Methot walks out, Miss Chandler becomes the star. But she's in love with Bickford, who's been playing Officer McGruff, so she falls for Miss Methot's hoodlum boyfriend, George Meeker, and gets caught with his corpse.

It's one of the surprisingly good Columbia movies that they turned out on a tiny budget when Harry Cohn wasn't occupied fighting with Capra. Director Nick Grinde, who managed to eke out a decent career for no reason I could ever fathom, does a good job, with some lovely camera work by Joseph August. The story feels cramped in its 67 minutes, but it certainly doesn't waste any time.

A very grimy but also cheerful entertaining tale of survival in New York during the Depression. Not only is this soaked in the essence of 1932 so much that you can taste it, it's also much better than a lot of pictures from that year both technically in terms of direction and photography and also in acting - the characters feel very natural and believable. This one's a real time machine movie.

Director Nick Grindé isn't one of those famous Hollywood names but he'd had his writing and directing fingers in many pies from Norma Shearer's THE DIVORCEE to Laurel and Hardy's BABES IN TOYLAND. He didn't write this one though, we've got Columbia's top writer, Robert Riskin in charge who is today probably best known as the guy who wrote the Frank Capra films. So the team behind this picture were Columbia's A team and this really shows. The photography is very imaginative; indeed it's quite rare to see such care going into making every single frame look so perfect and interesting in the early thirties. Its story has real empathy and real characters so you are immediately draw into living alongside them and caring about their lives. Its script is fast and clever and importantly also witty enough to keep what could have been a miserable, dour tale light and breezy.

The New York of 1932 depicted in this certainly has appeal galore but it doesn't seem somewhere you'd want to stay. Against this background of hardship and suffering, Jeanie, one of the thousands whom society doesn't want anymore, played with astonishing non-sentimental sensitivity by Helen Chandler gets a lucky break. Even as her life starts to improve she still retains a waif-like innocence that's always evoking sympathy and support from us without being soppy. Possibly it's her "normalness" which meant that she never became a big film star. Unlike the greats such as Garbo, Joan Blondell, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, you can't really assign a label to describe Helen Chandler's character - she was just normal. In a film like this or indeed in films made these days, naturalness is expected but back then if you weren't the archetypal good time girl, the ultimate sophisticated lady, the other woman, the bubbly friend then where did you belong? Sadly for Helen, not in a film studio..... but back to this film.... yes, she's great in this role.

It's impossible to watch Mayo Methot in anything without the voice in your head telling you every five minutes that she was Bogart's wife and she wasn't very nice to him. You just can't shut that voice up and it is a bit distracting but you must try because Miss Methot has a very crucial role in this. Again like Helen Chandler, she's very natural and believable but whereas Chandler is the one who is pushed around, Methot is one of those doing the pushing. Thucydides words from over two thousand years ago seem quite apposite for New York in the early thirties: The strong do what they can and the weak do what they must.

The film begins with Jeanie (Helen Chandler) throwing a brick through a store window. No, she's not angry about anything...she's hungry and homeless and figures that at least in jail she'll have a place to sleep and a meal. The arresting officer, Brian Murphy (Charles Bickford), can see that she's no criminal and does something extraordinary...he gives her the key to his apartment and tells her to make herself at home. Then, he helps her get on her feed and get a job....no strings attached whatsoever. He's just a really nice guy. However, he's also a bit dim in that he doesn't realize that Jeanie is smitten with him and he rejects her advances. Eventually, she runs off with a real jerk...anyone to spite Murphy. What's next? Murder!!

This film is like many Pre-Code pictures in that its moral compass is NOT like it would be in the Post-Code era. No, it has unmarried folks cohabitating, it has them talk about sex (without actually coming right out and saying it) and there's a character who curses. Definitely NOT what many would expect from an older film...but still extremely well written and enjoyable.

Nifty and fast-paced pre-Code film has Helen Chandler homeless and starving, so she tosses a brick through a drugstore window so she can be arrest and get some food and sleep. But the tables are turned by big-hearted cop (Charles Bickford) takes her under his wing and into his apartment to look after her. He also gets her a job as a chorus girl where she attracts the attention of slimy Val (George Meeker) who preys upon women.

Seems he's also been robbing fading star Fern Cavan (Mayo Methot) blind, and when she quits her starring role in the show, he cleans out her safe and leaves to flat, using the money to lure Chandler into his "high life." Chandler takes the bait after she gives up waiting for Bickford to take a romantic interest in her. But when the faded star realizes her money is gone, she goes into action.

Helen Chandler is wonderful and remains one of the underrated stars of early talkies. Charles Bickford is good in a rare sympathetic role. George Meeker is appropriately oily, and Mayo Method, best remembered as one of Bogart's wives, has a solid role and is quite good as the troubled star. The print I have from Sony MOD is excellent.