Stop the presses! I know I said last night that, with the screening of "Across The Pacific", I had come to the end of my Humphrey Bogart marathon, but I spoke too soon. Consider this a retraction. Today I went to the Libe to pick up some newly arrived dvds that I'd put on hold, and one of them was a movie called "The Great O'Malley" (1937). I had reserved this title several weeks ago, before Christmas, and in the length of time it took to acquire it, I had forgotten what it was about or who the leads were.
It stars Pat O'Brien, an actor famous in the 30s for playing mostly "good guy" roles associated with authority; Irish priests and cops were his specialty. He was known as "Hollywood's resident Irishman" and he came across as authentic because of a slight accent, though he was actually from Milwaukee.
Here, he is "O'Malley" of the title role, a cop in New York who is a stickler for rules and regulations, so much so that he has the city ordinance book memorized. He is an officious police officer who cites the citizens and shopkeepers on his beat for any infraction he can find them in violation of : a store awning that hangs too far over the sidewalk; a junkman who has too many bells on his truck. The citizens who encounter O'Malley can't stand him, and actually, neither can his precinct captain, played by the great character actor Donald Crisp. Captain Crisp dresses O'Malley down, tells him that his trivial and daily citations are hurting the working folks in the area. The film takes place in the deep dark middle of The Depression, when a man was lucky to even have a job, and here is Officer O'Malley, ticketing folks for laws that were written over a century ago, equivalent to spitting on the sidewalk. The cityfolk are poor enough as it is. They haven't enough money to put food on their tables let alone pay expensive police fines.
Enter Humphrey Bogart, who does not star in the film but has the pivotal supporting role. He plays a man down on his luck, driving an old jalopy through O'Malley's sector on his way to a new job he has tenuously secured. His car has a broken muffler. It is loud, and as Bogart stops for a red light, the hard-line O'Malley notices the noise. He orders Bogey to pull over and cites him for the muffler, and while doing so he also delivers a lecture on the importance of obeying the law. Bogart asks him to please write the ticket and be quick; he doesn't want to be late for his new job. He is fortunate to have gotten hired at a time when so many men are out of work. But to Officer O'Malley, the law is more important, and so is his lecture. He is the epitome of the sanctimonious cop. Everyone hates him, even the other cops and the police chief (who is looking for a reason to fire him).
Well, so Bogey is indeed late for his new job - by only five minutes - because of the time taken by O'Malley in writing the muffler ticket. The factory boss doesn't want to hear an excuse. Bogey is fired on the spot.
Now we see the real time consequences of O'Malley's actions. Bogart has a family but is broke. He needed that job but now has to drive to the local pawn shop with just his Army medals to offer for sale, and a pistol. The pawnbroker offers him three bucks for the lot.
At this point the plot is launched, and I shall not divulge much more. However, because of a plot development, Police Chief Crisp is now so disgusted with O'Malley that he demotes him to working as a crossing guard for elementary school children. At first O'Malley is peeved. He thinks he has been doing a great job. But surprisingly, the movie turns as he takes to the children whose safety he is now in charge of. One little girl takes a shine to him in return, and she becomes the motivating force for O'Malley to turn his life around. Here we have a similarity to the Scrooge Story. O'Malley has been a heartless prick, going by the book, regardless of the effect his actions have on real people. But this little girl, a pupil at the school, can see something good in him. She has a gimpy leg (ala Tiny Tim), and this disability brings out the latent humanity in the seemingly uncompassionate officer.
The girl is played by the child actress Sybil Jason, whom I had never heard of before tonight, but she is a gem, on par with the likes of Shirley Temple and Margaret O'Brien. She turns the entire movie around, with help from the screenwriter of course, as she keeps after Officer O'Malley to keep his promises, to visit her at school and to attend her school play. Now with a child to look after he is realizing his human feelings.....
But there is something about this child he isn't at first aware of.
"The Great O'Malley" runs only 71 minutes, yet the script tells a story twice that length. Pat O'Brien is the star throughout, it is his movie, and he is so great as he undergoes his emotional transformation that you want to stand up and cheer. This is a Depression-era feel good film, and it has the required heart to uplift audiences in need of a boost. Little Sybil Jason alone raises the height of the story. Pat O'Brien turns it around toward a positive ending, and Humphrey Bogart.........
Well, I cannot tell you what he does.
"The Great O'Malley" is a story of the need for compassion in the law, where it concerns ordinary citizens. The writers make a critique of overzealous police work where the matter at hand is trivial.
It is a Depression-era tale about the importance of families, and how difficult it was at the time to hold a family together.
Directed by the great William Dieterle, a studio legend who also made "Portrait Of Jenny" (one of my favorite movies of all time), and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", a theatrical masterpiece reviewed last August. Dieterle made several other great movies and specialised in stories about the way in which belief, love and kindness came together to create a magical ending for his protagonists.
Though short in duration for the story it wants to tell, "The Great O'Malley" gets it message out.
At the end I found myself thinking "20 stars"!, but I'll cut it to 10, just to be realistic.
I loved this movie, and now I have to look for more with Pat O'Brien.
Ten Stars, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up for "The Great O'Malley", which does in fact end my Bogey marathon for the time being.
See you in the morning. Much love until then. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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