This Is the Bowery

MGM presents John Nesbitt's Passing Parade. The New York City Bowery is like many other places in crowded cities, a place for the down-and-out, liquor stores, and cheap diners. Unemployed men wander arounder struggling to get by. This follows a newcomer who doesn't even know how to panhandle properly. He finds help at a local church.

I'm trying to figure out the motives behind this pre-Pearl Harbor short. I doubt it's a road map for these downtrodden since they wouldn't have the money to see this. It's a do-gooder and church short. Maybe it's for dog lovers. It's pulling yourself up by your boot straps. It's old school.

This episode of John Nesbitt's THE PASSING PARADE concerns itself with the Bowery, Manhattan's skid row, and a man who finds himself walking its soul-desolate streets. Nesbitt always was in charge of the subject and his narration, but director Gunther von Fritsch went down to the Bowery with cameraman William Miller, and shot the scenes there.

The Bowery has changed in the last couple of decades. Before then, it had maintained its seedy reputation for more than a century.

This is the Bowery (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Nice entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series takes us to the ugly streets of the Bowery in New York. Nesbitt describes it as the "permanent hangover" as various men find themselves homeless due to the lack of a job, their own desire or sometimes bad luck. We then follow one man as he sleeps on sidewalks but eventually finds himself in a church where help might be. One would think that the film would turn preachy or religious but it actually doesn't and instead it tries to make one believe in themselves no matter how many times you get kicked around. The opening part of this 9-minute short really comes off like a dark horror film as we get to see all the ugly stuff and hear about some dark images including how many people freeze to death in the winters simply by going to sleep. As usual, Nesbitt's narration is top-notch and really delivers the emotional aspect that the film needs.

"This Is The Bowery" is one in "The Passing Parade" series of MGM one-reel shorts, narrated by John Nesbitt, mainly dealing with the changing American scene. There were at least 68 released between 1938 and 1949. "This Is The Bowery" follows one homeless man as he drifts from handout to handout in New York City's Bowery District until he is finally salvaged by the Bowery Mission operated by Charles St. John, who appears as himself. What starts as a depressing depiction of humanity at its barest, ends with an inspirational uplift as we see a broken human being fixed both physically and emotionally, heading uptown to a renewed life of hope.

This is a typical entry in the series and if somewhat dated in method and script, is still entertaining and worthwhile. Plus the cinematography by William Miller of the Bowery in crisp black and white is eye catching.