Big Brown Eyes (1936)

Sassy manicurist Eve Fallon is recruited as an even more brassy reporter and she helps police detective boyfriend Danny Barr break a jewel theft ring and solve the murder of a baby.

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

James Edward Grant (story), Bert Hanlon,

Stars:

Cary Grant, Joan Bennett, Walter Pidgeon

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cary Grant	...	Det. Sgt. Danny Barr
Joan Bennett	...	Eve Fallon
Walter Pidgeon	...	Richard Morey
Lloyd Nolan	...	Russ Cortig
Alan Baxter	...	Cary Butler
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Chesley Cole
Isabel Jewell	...	Bessie Blair
Douglas Fowley	...	Benjamin 'Benny' Battle
Henry Brandon	...	Don Butler (as Henry Kleinbach)
Joe Sawyer	...	Jack Sully
Dolores Casey	...	Cashier
Doris Canfield	...	Myrtle
Edwin Maxwell	...	Editor
Helen Brown	...	Bereaved Mother
Sam Flint	...	Martin

Storyline

Dan Barr is a flatfoot on the trail of jewel robbers. Eve Fallon is his girl of 5 years. We meet them spitting and sparring, but never doubting they're in love. Eve is a manicurist, with an eye for news. Soon after we meet her, she's out of the beauty salon and into the news-room as an ace reporter. With Eve's help, Dan nabs one of the jewel gang members, Cortig, whose stray bullet killed a baby in the park. A spooked witness and a slick lawyer get Cortig off. Disgusted with the lack of justice, Dan quits the force to find his own justice. Eve, likewise, quits the paper and returns to her job as manicurist. While giving a manicure, Eve unwittingly discovers that a prominent local citizen is the jewel gang's leader. All the while, Dan is hot on the trail. Their trails merge and the case is solved.

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Plot Keywords:

manicurist | police reporter | female reporter | ventriloquism | barber shop | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 April 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

Empreintes digitales

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walter Wanger Productions, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

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Quotes

[Morey sees Eve at the hotel drugstore counter buying aspirin. He enters and starts a conversation with her, finding out that she has just lost her manicurist job]
Richard Morey: They have nice perfumes here.
Eve Fallon: Yeah, if you can afford 'em.
Richard Morey: Uh, how much are these?
Off-screen Sales Clerk: Fifty-five dollars.
Richard Morey: Give me four of them.
Eve Fallon: Mmmmm. You must have lots of friends.
Richard Morey: Oh, they're all for you.
Eve Fallon: Oh, but I couldn't.
Richard Morey: Oh, but you could.
[...]

User Reviews

Cary Grant a Cop?

Yes, it's true. The actor who in a few years would become the ultimate symbol of film sophistication and elegance has the role of a policeman in this fairly routine comedy-drama. But no matter. Grant has enough charm and grace to make even this kind of part his own. How did he do it? Grant just stands out and is so likable while a lesser actor would just walk through this rather thankless assignment.

Joan Bennett played the kind of sassy brassy part that was often taken on by the likes of Ginger Rogers or Joan Blondell. Did anyone else catch her throwaway line that mirrored Mae West's famous "come up and see me sometime?" Many folks don't remember that Bennett was a blond BEFORE she became better known to later movie audiences as a brunette. Does anyone know of any other famous actress who made such a transition? Not me.

The rest of the cast did serviceable work in the film. Douglas Fowley, who played a humorous bit as one of the crooks, is far better known to most film audiences as the harried movie director in "Singing in the Rain," who had to deal with the chaotic and riotous problems of bringing sound to what were formerly silent movies.

But this film belongs to its male lead. You can almost see in watching the movies he made at this time just how he developed the layers of "business" that came together to produce the screen personality we all know as Cary Grant. He may have been paying his dues by taking on this fairly routine role. In the long run----we are all the better for it. Cary Grant was one of the greatest screen actors of all time----maybe the greatest.