User Reviews

The aerial shot of New York City that opens this film is up there with the opening of "West Side Story" as a great way to go back in time and to see how much Manhattan has changed and how much it has stayed the same. Shots of every day doing's in the park also open and close the film, but the body of this giant cake are the outrageous plots that fill out this hour long pre-code drama. It nearly tops "Freaks" for the oddest film of 1932 and deserves quodos for its originality, or at least its imagination.

Central Park zoo security guard Guy Kibbee is about to retire, looking forward to collecting his pension after years of service, but the news of an escaped former zoo employee (from a mental institution!) disturbs his last moments of employment. Kibbee apparently was one of the people behind this crazy man's institutionalizing, so he is on their list of revenge, as is another zoo keeper (Charles Sellon) whom the escaped former employee (John Wray) blames for mistreating the lions. While Kibbee is busy playing with some tiger cubs, Wray locks him in, then sneaks up on Sellon, overpowers him, and tosses him into the lion's den with disastrous results, causing the lion to escape when Kibbee shoots the doorknob off the room he is in. Hysterically, the lion finds a unique hiding place that I need to keep secret so you have the same laugh that I did.

While all this is going on, down on her luck job seeker Joan Blondell meets the equally desperate Wallace Ford in the park for the first time, shares a lunch, and sets a date for later. She is stopped by alleged law officers who offer her the job of stepping in for a beauty contest winner in order to prevent a theft of money collected for the needy at a benefit at the Tavern on the Green, not realizing that these men are part of a racket. The two events collide together as the lion emerges, the crooks make their move, Kibbee goes after them, and other cops question both Blondell and Ford for their involvement in the scam.

The sight of the lion emerging, running through the kitchen and into the dining area of the Tavern on the Green is both frightening and funny, because in the context of the movie, who'd expect a lion to all of a sudden choose one of New York's most well known dining establishments as their means of escaping capture?

Perky Joan Blondell was very busy in her early days in Hollywood, and for those who only know her as the waitress in "Grease" and for Kathy Bates' version of her on TV's "Feud" will be really surprised to see her young and thin and full of pep. In 1932, she appeared in ten movies (probably a record for a leading lady), adding a sparkle to even the most maudlin of movies, and when she is on screen, all eyes are on her. For a while, she was even a bigger star than Bette Davis, who supported HER in the same year's "Three on a Match".

Ford, really looking like the epitome of the forgotten man, is rather grungy in the leading role, but it speaks highly of her character and his class hidden underneath his disheveled look that she'd accept his offer of a date without question, showing a trust rarely seen in any major metropolis, let alone New York City. They would work together again in 1940's "Two Girls on Broadway", but while she was still a lead, he was listed among the supporting players. The heart and soul of the film is the lovable Guy Kibbee, one of the busiest character actors, here playing a rather tragic elderly man who is the type of man who would give his life to save his fellow man. The film is brisk and speedy, and so much happens, that to reveal too much would spoil the fun that occurs in the brief running time. As a film itself, it is bizarre and unbelievable, but it is that strange combination that makes it endearing.

I didn't much care for this movie until the lion was introduced, and that's because i usually don't like gangster/mob films. The most interesting character in this was the insane guy who locked the man up in the cage, and the lion itself. Both these characters brought the movie to life, and i wish it had been the center of the whole film, it was like two movies mashed into one, but i was only interested in the latter. I honestly thought the two story lines would intertwine towards the end, and it would make sense but it never did. We don't even get another look at smiley, just a brief mention of him towards the end to wrap up the story quickly. Lackluster. And i felt sorry for the lion. Shouldn't be in a cage like that anyway. The lion deserved a happy ending.

Joan Blondell was always surprised to see James Cagney, her friend from Broadway days, become such a movie success but Joan could well have become a big star also if she had made fame her main motivation. As it was she was always happy and willing to do any movie Warners gave her, even starting one before she had finished the last, she just wasn't that choosy!! The public soon fell in love with her sassy character and were rewarded by seeing her in so many movies!!

Even though theatre managers were often encouraged to put on phoney stunts and demonstrations to coincide with new movie releases they wanted to publicize, this movie had so much going for it that the author Ward Morehouse created parties and parades especially for it. Producers of some recent agonizingly boring epics should turn to films like "Central Park" for inspiration - but they probably won't!! There is more action and plot in just under 58 minutes - gangsters, romance, wild animals, all set in Central Park - they even once had a Casino there!!!

Dot (Blondell) is an out of work actress and Rick (Wallace Ford) a rodeo star from Arizona who do a little flirting by a hot dog stand in Central Park. They are both from the vast army of the unemployed but their luck is soon to change. Dot is approached by two men claiming to be policemen, they want her for some mysterious undercover work because of her good looks and Rick, because he was helpful to soon to be retired policeman Charley Cabot (Guy Kibbee) is given the job of washing the police motorcycles (for the princely sum of $2!!). Charley has a secret - he is going blind but because he is desperate to retire with a pension the only person who knows is Eby (Henry B. Walthall, playing with his usual dignity, in a minor role). So when he comes across Robert Smiley, an ex-lion keeper who has just escaped from an insane asylum, all he sees is a blur and he mistakes him for one of the other keepers. Smiley has an insane hatred of people who are cruel to animals and he has come back to see Luke (the usually docile Charles Sellon), a keeper who hates wild animals and takes great delight in teasing them, get his just desserts!!

Meanwhile Dot has been employed as a beauty contest winner who is to help the "police" "look after" the money from a society dinner where guests have paid $100 a ticket - the money is to go towards helping the unemployed. Rick get suspicious when he overhears a conversation and is taken to the gangsters apartment where his skills as a rodeo performer come in handy.

All the action takes place during a single day (and night) and climaxes with the escape of a lion who terrorizes the patrons of the Casino. Blondell does her usual sterling job and Wallace Ford proves, once again, he was a really under rated leading man, excelling at the "working class hero" parts!!