REVIEW POTPOURRI: Film – Big Street; TV Shows: Slow Horses, Countdown and Bosch: Legacy

Henry Fonda

by Peter Cates

I recently watched the 1942 film Big Street starring Henry Fonda (1905-1982) and Lucille Ball (1911-1989), both in dramatic roles. Fonda’s Pinks, a very shy waiter in a Broadway night club, is infatuated by Lucy’s torch singer Gloria who has a regular evening gig and who happens to be the girlfriend of the club’s dangerously possessive gangster owner, as persuasively portrayed by Barton Maclane (During the ‘60s, Maclane was a regular on I Dream of Jeannie).

At first, Gloria comes off as a selfish narcissist and brushes off the waiter until he rescues her little dog from being run over in the street. Even then she’s still distant.

Lucille Ball

But when she informs her boyfriend that she wants out of their relationship, he pushes her down a flight of stairs, leaving her permanently paralyzed, and pays 15 witnesses to claim it was an accident.

After a hospital stay when she can no longer afford long term medical care, the waiter and some of his friends provide support.

As time goes on, the singer and waiter develop a closer relationship.

Here is where I stop with more details.

Both Fonda and Ball did outstanding work, along with a supporting cast including the above-mentioned Maclane (1903-1969); Ray Collins (1889-1965) as a much different character from his later acclaimed Lieutenant Tragg on Perry Mason; the always captivating Agnes Moorehead (1900-1974); Eugene Pallette (1888-1953) – who was the wealthy patriarch in the earlier comedy classic My Man Godfrey with William Powell and Carole Lombard; and Vera Gordon (1886-1948) who is the very kind neighbor Mrs. Lefkowitz (Born in Russia, Miss Gordon had the beginnings of a promising career in a Moscow Theater until management fired her because she was Jewish).

Highly recommended suspense TV – Slow Horses, Countdown and Bosch: Legacy.

Gary Oldman

Slow Horses stars Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, a British MI 5 agent in charge of a group of outcasts no longer allowed to work at the main office but who continually stumble into dangerous situations which they manage to solve by hook and crook.

Jackson Lamb himself is an overweight boozing slob whose personal hygiene and habits are beyond gross and who treats his workers like crap, loading them with useless busy work, hoping they resign which they refuse to do.

The on-location footage of 21st century London contributes vividly to the atmosphere of the series, now in its fifth season on Apple TV.

Mimi Rogers

Countdown has a Belarusian terrorist intending to set off nukes in a major city while Bosch:Legacy has a private investigator searching for and protecting long-lost heirs to a billionaire’s wealth, rescuing his daughter from a rapist and taking down another billionaire who has committed several murders and walked due to the usual lack of evidence.

Ukrainian actor Bogdan Yasinski and Moscow-born Pascha Lychnikoff appear in both series as dangerous Russian gangsters and, despite the typecasting, deliver convincing characterizations.

Another attraction of Bosch: Legacy is the very underrated Mimi Rogers as a defense attorney.