Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

MartinHafer This film begins with Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) leaving his small home town for a life in New York City. The fast pace of the city is then lampooned in a montage sequence. Yep, the 'big city' certainly is fast...and Reeves is a total boob. This becomes apparent when his cousin (Walter Catlett) preys upon him. Anyone with a dozen functioning brain cells would immediately recognize him as a con man, but dumb ohttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022676/usercomments-enterld Reeves lets the guy rob him blind. How can anyone be THAT stupid?! In fact, the Reeves character was awfully broadly written with his "aw, shucks" attitude and wide-eyed innocence. Frankly, he was annoying and completely unrealistic--and this seriously impacted the quality of the film.When the guests to a party that his cousin puts on (despite Reeves paying for EVERYTHING), you may notice Shep--Humphrey Bogart in his first role with Warner Brothers, though he does not receive screen credit. In addition to Bogart, familiar Warner players Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee and Ned Sparks are in attendance.Lyle Talbot, like Bogart, is uncredited in a small scene--and the two of them get involved in a dandy brawl. Then, when the lights go out you hear a scream. When the fight is over and the lights return, a young girl is dead and everyone scrams. Wow..that Reeves is an idiot--and the cops suspect HE did it! And, instead of going to the police, the idiot tries to leave New York. What a moron!! If you haven't noticed, I have called Reeves 'moron' many times and even for a B-film this is a terribly written character. This certainly didn't help Eric Linden's career, though the stink of this film didn't seem to hurt Blondell or Bogart. It is quite bad, but not bad enough to be anything more than a small speed bump in their careers.Overall, in insignificant and dumb film--and my nominee for the broadest morality tale written in the 1930s. The only people who may want to see it are Bogart fans--otherwise, beware--it's just not worth an hour of your life.

bkoganbing Humphrey Bogart's first appearance in Warner Brothers picture was in a small featured role in Big City Blues which starred Eric Linden and Joan Blondell. It's the story of a young kid from Hoopersville, Indiana who comes to the New York City to seek fame and fortune and gets a great deal less than he bargained for.Linden plays our young man fresh off the farm and the first Linden does is look up cousin Walter Catlett who is playing the usual Walter Catlett sharpie. I do love the way Catlett keeps opening his wallet and to his amazement can't seem to find any money there. He latches on to Linden the way a political 'consultant' latches on to a spendthrift candidate.Of course Linden's arrival in the Big Apple is cause for a party which means bootleg booze, chorus girls, and some dance music. Catlett takes the liberty and Linden's money and room to throw a party so Eric can presumably meet some of the 'important' people Catlett knows. Among the guests are Joan Blondell and a bevy of her chorus girl friends.But things go terribly wrong and one of the girls, Josephine Dunn, winds up dead. When that happens the guests scatter with Catlett the first out the door and Blondell the last, leaving poor Linden holding the bag. Of course Linden panics and spends the next day a fugitive looking for Blondell.Mervyn LeRoy directs Big City Blues at a sprightly pace and when you've got players like Blondell, Bogey, Catlett, and most of all Guy Kibbee playing an oaf of a house detective you know the film will be entertaining. In fact down the cast list you've got Herman Bing as a waiter, Lyle Talbot as another party guest, J. Carrol Naish as the supplying bootlegger, and Dennis O'Keefe in a small bit in a crap game and more besides, you're in for a real treat if you're like me, a big fan of the days when all these faces ruled films. Dick Powell is heard only as a radio announcer.Kibbee by the way turns out to be the hero of the film, but you have to see it to see how he accomplishes that. And of course you have to see what happens to naive young Eric Linden.Some nice blue cracks in this before the Code film pepper Big City Blues throughout the running time. Although one very big screen legend was in the cast, the film is actually a real salute to some of the great character players the movies ever had.

classicsoncall Perhaps to underscore the quick pace of life in New York, "Big City Blues" moves along at a hectic sixty three minute pace, and tries to cram as much action as it can into that amount of time. Willow Station railroad agent (Grant Mitchell) has been there and done that, and bets a ten spot with a buddy that anxious traveler Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) will be back within a month.For his part, Bud is flush with enthusiasm and eleven hundred dollars and ready to make his mark on the big town. He's met by fast talking cousin "Gibby" Gibboney (Walter Catlett), who has a knack for getting others to pay his way, and completely monopolizes the conversation in every scene he's in. He's on a first name basis with a few up and coming showgirls, particularly cute Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell), who immediately becomes fond of the rube from Hoopersville, Indiana. Things move a bit too fast though, as Gibby organizes a welcome party for Bud in his room at the Hotel Hercules, and all manner of show biz types begin to arrive, among them Shep Adkins (Humphrey Bogart). Shep is about to move in on Len Scully's (Lyle Talbot) girl, Lenny objects with his fists, and a brawl breaks out that leaves the young showgirl dead.Not knowing what to do, young Bud follows the example of everyone else at the party, he high tails it before the law can arrive. Night watchman Hummel (Guy Kibbee) revels in his five minutes of fame for finding the dead victim, while detective Quelkin (Thomas Jackson) tails Vida who he hopes can lead him to Bud Reeves, guilty until proved innocent. By accident, Hummel solves the case by going for his whiskey bottle in the hotel linen closet, where he finds Scully's body, a suicide victim with a shard of the broken bottle that neatly fits with the piece recovered by the police.Back at Willow Station, it only takes the railroad agent three days to collect on his bet, as Bud gratefully touches down on home turf. He still has visions of grandeur for life in New York, but has grown up enough to have some patience for it. Maybe next time, things will work out a bit better.By 1932, Humphrey Bogart had a handful of movie credits to his name, but nothing significant as of yet. That was about to change with his next film, "Three on a Match", which also co-starred Joan Blondell. Both would work together two more times, in 1936's "Bullets or Ballots" with Edward G. Robinson, and the 1937 comedy "Stand-In". All are recommended for fans of either, while "Bullets or Ballots" is a fine early example of the mobster genre made popular by films like "Public Enemy" and "White Heat".

Ray Papa WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! This is a fun movie that gets better after the first viewing. I first watched it just for the early Bogart. When you watch it for the whole effect you'll probably wonder why it's never been on VHS or DVD. Well, there's this young man who's leaving the sticks for the Big Apple. The old men at the train station try to tell him he's in for disappointment, but he doesn't listen. In New York he gets an $8 room (nice for 1932) where his cousin takes advantage of him by using some of his $1,100 cash for parties and booze. He meets Joan Blondell and they are attracted to each other. It's funny how in this pre-code film, they never kiss once, even though adult themes are everywhere. Well, during the party in which almost everyone is drunk or stoned, Bogart tries to take another man's girlfriend home, which starts a brawl. A bottle is thrown, striking a girl in the head, killing her. Everybody runs off, leaving the poor kid from the sticks with the dead girl in his hotel room. As he avoids the police, he meets up with an older woman who would like him to spend some time with her. He finds Joan Blondell again, and loses the rest of his cash trying to win enough money so they can get away from it all. They get caught, taken down to the station, are grilled, and finally Bogart's brawling partner is found after hanging himself, with "proof" that the kid from the sticks is innocent. The two kids hug at the train station and they young man goes back to the sticks, only to decide to make some money to return to New York.