CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

kenjha A busboy (busman, really) so adores a nightclub singer that he devotes his life to caring for her after she becomes paralyzed; she treats him like dirt. It sounds like a good premise for a romantic comedy except that this is a serious drama. Ball plays such a self-centered, ungrateful jerk that it defies logic that anyone would voluntarily cater to her. Fonda loves her so much that he pushes her in a wheelchair from New York to Florida! And remember, this is not played for laughs. The finale is so utterly ridiculous that one figures it must be a comedy. No - still serious. The fine supporting cast features the likes of Palette, Moorehead, and Levene, but the script is lame.

jimmyburrell I have always been thrilled to see Lucille Ball in the old Hollywood movies in which she starred many years before her stardom in the sitcom "I Love Lucy". She held the grace of the top stars at the time and I can certainly understand why Desi Arnaz fell madly in love with her after seeing this film. I sincerely believe that if you have never seen "The Big Street" then you have not seen Lucille Ball at her best. She was an incredibly talented Hollywood movie actress and I only regret that I hadn't discovered that sooner. This movie made me want to collect all of Lucy's old movies because this one was a real surprise for me! I loved Lucy before, but now I respect and appreciate her even more for being a survivor and holding her own among the likes of Grace Kelly and Greta Garbo. Lucy certainly was a bombshell in her day! See this movie and you will understand why. It will win over even the toughest critic.

nycritic Lucille Ball plays something of a she-monster with almost no redeeming values in this implausible romantic drama about what can only be addressed as masochistic love. The person from whom this kind of sick emotion stems from is Agustus Pinkerton, a.k.a. "Little Pinks" (Henry Fonda), a man who works as a busboy at the nightclub where Gloria Lyons, a.k.a. "Your Highness" (Ball) works as a showgirl. She's way out of his league; he loves her from a distance. She could notice him less; he has made her his world and reason of existence. She flirts with men left and right; he only has eyes for her. Can you just see the romance blooming like the Rites of Spring?The plot thickens: Gloria gets into an altercation with her gangster, Case Ables (Barton MacLaine) that lands her at the low end of a flight of stairs where she debuts in her newly created role as a cripple (not that she wasn't already, albeit one on the inside). Little Pinks, previously little more than an observer, steps up and takes her in, wanting to (symbolically) Make Her His Woman despite her brittle demands that he leave her alone. However, here is where the story takes an odd turn: Little Pinks is so fixated in Gloria's (selfish) happiness that he is willing to transport her (for lack of a better word) to Florida so she can resume her relationship with another man.Leopold von Sacher-Masoch couldn't have written a more tender story. All that is missing here are the whips and chains and an assortment of kinky accoutrement. It's really not Ball's or Fonda's fault that this dismal, Kleenex-happy movie is a travesty of a melodrama. Ball committed herself tooth and nail to a role handed down to her by recently deceased pal Carole Lombard (one wonders how Lombard might have handled this nasty role). Fonda was a great actor who could convince you he was as noble as he is here. This is what really matters, and is a postulate that Bette Davis herself was known to obey: that a movie, no matter how awful it would look, should be remembered more for the quality of the actors' performance. THE BIG STREET is that kind of movie: one that is laughable in its contrivances, but that boasts two really fearless performances, most notably Ball cast completely against type since she is still regarded as America's Favorite Crazy Redhead.

Robert McGrath Henry Fonda was a star when movie was being cast and he wanted a well know as his co star not a B bit player like Lucille Ball. Carole Lombard was asked and she turned it down recommending Ball. Fonda was anxious to get movie obligation behind him and join the Navy. So he agreed. Neither Fonda or Ball played their role in a Runyan style, where you develop a "liking" for the character. I felt the story line was good but Fonda and Ball played outside the usual Runyan cast of characters. Too bad....Poor directing I would say.... Ford could have pulled it off....the movie was not promoted so few people saw it back in '42. Nevertheless call it a watershed movie for two future stars and one of the last pictures before WW2 "propaganda" movies. Jane Fonda says that her father was in love with Lucille years later.......I wonder what there social interaction was during this shooting?