Baby Face Harrington (1935)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (screenplay) and
Edwin H. Knopf (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

Three funsters in a fast moving farce about the goofiest gangster that ever put a guy on a spot.

Plot:

Willie Harrington is a wimpy small-town bookkeeper at a bank who unwittingly gets involved with the country's toughest gangster and his gang...

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Police | Country Club | Employment Dismissal | Newspaper

Cast

Charles Butterworth	...	Willie Harrington
Una Merkel	...	Millie Harrington
Harvey Stephens	...	Ronald Lawford
Eugene Pallette	...	Uncle Henry Parker
Nat Pendleton	...	Rocky Bannister
Ruth Selwyn	...	Dorothy
Donald Meek	...	Mr. Skinner
Dorothy Libaire	...	Edith
Edward J. Nugent	...	Albert (as Edward Nugent)
Robert Livingston	...	George
Stanley Fields	...	'Moider' Mullens
Raymond Brown	...	Detective McGuire
Wade Boteler	...	Police Chief Glynn
Bradley Page	...	Dave
Richard Carle	...	Judge Forbes

Also Known As:

Baby Face Harrington (UK)
Public Enemy No. 2 (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

62 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #713) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Both Sherry Hall (Harry) and Jack Baxley (Bartender) are in studio records/casting call lists for their roles, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. Also, several actors, listed as cast members in contemporary Hollywood Reporter news items, did not appear in the movie. Those were: Harry Tyler, Robert McWade, William Demarest and Frank Lackteen.

Soundtrack:

Hiking, Hiking, Hiking

Decent

Baby Face Harrington (1935)

** (out of 4)

Raoul Walsh directed this comedy about a dorky bookkeeper (Charles Butterworth) who gets mistaken for a dangerous gangster. Una Merkel, Eugene Palette and Donald Meek co-star in this comedy, which only runs 65-minutes yet it takes at least a half an hour to get warned up but by then it's a little too late. The first half has all sorts of stupid jokes, which aren't funny but there are also long scenes where no laughs are even gone after. Once the mistaken identity happens then things pick up with Butterworth being charming in his role. It's rather strange that Walsh would take over the gangster genre from D.W. Griffith with the landmark Regeneration and then make one of the all time great gangster films in White Heat but have this stuck in the middle.