City Park (1934) User Reviews

Henry B. Walthall Saves Sally Blaine from A Police Record

[alonzoiii-1 · 6/10 · 3 February 2015]

Pretty Sally Blaine has been locked out of her apartment by the mean old landlady. Will she have to get arrested for solicitation to get a warm bed, or will three nice old derelicts (led by Henry B. Walthall) in CITY PARK save her from a jail record and who knows what else?

Henry B. Walthall was a gift to low budget movie makers in the early thirties, enlivening countless cheapo flicks with excellent, rather sad performances of people who have, for one reason or another, seemed to have passed their prime. In this one, Walthall seems to be channeling George Arliss, as his hero is not just well-meaning, but effective and determined to bring together a pair of young lovers by the end of the movie.

The dramatic tension is caused by a couple of things. One of them is Walthall's good natured, tactically clever, but utterly mistaken intervention in Sally Baline's love life. The other is the mystery of who exactly Walthall is. Both these little mysteries, and Walthall's strong performance, keep this from being a dreary piece of sentimental ickyness.

This is pre-code, but there is not much girls in undress or rampant immorality. However, there is no attempt to conceal that the prostitute with the heart of gold really is a prostitute, and isn't giving up the profession. (This becomes a plot point and the end of the show.)

Like most Bs produced by Chesterfield in the early 30s, this isn't brilliant, but is worth seeing.

Guardians Four

[boblipton · 6/10 · 16 April 2023]

Sally Blane is about to be arrested for vagrancy, when three old men -- Henry B. Walthall, Wilson Benge, and Lafe McKee -- intervene. After telling the police Miss Blane is Walthall's granddaughter, they take her to her rooming house, pay her bill, and eventually move in to fix her problems. Although their care and attention set her onto the right path, their attention to details is not what it should be.

It's a pleasure to see Walthall with a sizable role with a nice script by Karl Brown, good direction by Richard Thorpe, and a superior supporting cast, including Hale Hamilton and Gwen Lee. Sadly, Miss Blane, as the center of attention, is dull and vague in her performance, but Walthall is delightful as a wrong-headed, old-fashioned gentleman.

Rescued by four fairy godfathers.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 2 September 2015]

Is it better to search for a park bench to sleep on or try the world's oldest profession where the only thing that happens if you are caught is a roof over your head and three meals a day? That's what down on her luck Sally Blane is trying to figure out, having been given advice from professional streetwalker Gwen Lee.

She is rescued by four aging artists when they witness her about to be arrested by the undercover cop she just approached. One of them (Henry B. Walthall) claims to be her grandfather, and after helping her get back into her apartment where she was just evicted for non-payment of rent, the four men move in next door, hiring her as their maid so they can keep an eye on her with Lee's help. When Blane's old boyfriend tries to get her back, Walthall and the other men realize that he's no good, and try to find her another more appropriate young man to help her get her life back together.

This is a rather ordinary, unremarkable "B" movie from the short-lived Chesterfield Studios, and even though it has some obvious elements of pre-code, it isn't as spicy as it sounds. So you can call this a "Cinderella" story (or more of a "Snow White" story with the four artists replacing the seven dwarfs) with Lee delightfully tough yet big hearted as the obvious older hooker with years of experience underneath her belt. Nothing really comes out of this, but fortunately, it is short enough to get through.

Passable

[sb-47-608737 · 6/10 · 30 January 2020]

A very difficult movie to judge even by the entertainment value. The movie is entertaining for most of the time, the basic plot, isn't too bad. A girl, destitute wants to go to jail, where she has been told, by a kindly hooker, that she would get edible food 9in fact she said more than edible), and a place she could say her own, to stay, though not much money. What else could she want? So she chooses the easiest way, to pretend to be a hooker, and get arrested. It goes well, till three kindly old men intervene and gets her out of the clutches of the law. In this endeavour, the only rich of the three old men is evicted by his bossy DIL, son, who after his retirement running the business and is control of finances was in control in turn of his wife. The man goes to his old office, where his old friend is still the boss and draws money from there and takes a boarding place, one room for her, who is to be housekeeper, and another for the three. After the friction with his grandson, who naturally at first, before apologising, assumes her to be his grandfather's mistress, they pair up. But the cupid old men import her ex-bf from town, who was the reason of her eviction from foster home, and give them a job, in the bank. Which he uses for robbing. The end is expected, so nothing to speak of. The movie becomes a mess for around 10 minutes, before end, and then again comes back to track in last 10 minutes. When the boy is proved beyond doubt to be involved in robbery, there is no logic in the old-gang to get him free, even to the extent of taking the blame of robbery on themselves, so that he could marry the girl, who was more than an adopted granddaughter to them. If they wanted to be rid of her, it is OK, but not by tying to a proven crook. Thankfully, and not much thanks to them, but to the more pragmatic and who had taken almost a maternal interest in the girl, the things sort out. That particular episode could have been far better handled to make it a quite good movie. Anyway, by fast-fowarding that zone, I didn't lose anything of the plot, and saved some ridiculous moments. Could have got a few more stars, but for those 10 minutes.