This is Jean Simmons as you've never seen her, a prim and proper college professor on the surface, but able to navigate the streets of New York disguised as a bag lady, taking on bigger and meaner bag ladies ("Throw Mama From the Train's" Anne Ramsey) and the mob, a drug cartel that uses down on their luck old women to transport packages from one spot to another without suspicion. Simmons has been studying the plight of the elderly, and befriends feisty but sweet Sylvia Sidney who has been secretly working for the cartel. When Sidney is killed for betraying her contacts, Simmons decides to go undercover with the help of undercover cop Ed Asner (disguised as a homeless man when Simmons meets her), and she shows how she can face danger with courage and even finds romance with the grizzled ex-Lou Grant,
Having played mostly ladies in her career, Simmons takes on a different kind of part, and gives one of her best performances. She's no-nonsense but genuinely nice, and her brief time with Sidney at the beginning shows her heart. Sidney gets some great lines, but as her character is there meant to set up the plot, it's a brief cameo, but a nice one. Her character could be any of the 1930's movie waifs she played now elderly and down on her luck. Simmons gets audience (and fellow old people she meets) applause when she takes on Ramsey, basically playing the same character she did with Bette Davis in "White Mama". The romance with Asner comes from their mutual admiration (which started off with them at odds) and rather than being unbelievable has the audience rooting for them as if they could end up being an older version of Nick and Nora. Well worth seeing for its heart, humor and action.
Having played mostly ladies in her career, Simmons takes on a different kind of part, and gives one of her best performances. She's no-nonsense but genuinely nice, and her brief time with Sidney at the beginning shows her heart. Sidney gets some great lines, but as her character is there meant to set up the plot, it's a brief cameo, but a nice one. Her character could be any of the 1930's movie waifs she played now elderly and down on her luck. Simmons gets audience (and fellow old people she meets) applause when she takes on Ramsey, basically playing the same character she did with Bette Davis in "White Mama". The romance with Asner comes from their mutual admiration (which started off with them at odds) and rather than being unbelievable has the audience rooting for them as if they could end up being an older version of Nick and Nora. Well worth seeing for its heart, humor and action.
