Popular reviews

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  Review by Penny_S ★★★½ 3

  The Big Noirvember 19/30
  prompt 16: Starring Joan Bennett

  More of a mystery than a noir, this film looked gorgeous! The clothing, hair-dos, hats, sets, & furniture were mid 1930s perfection! There wasn’t much to the plot, but that’s ok. I loved the scenes in the swanky barber shop! The opening sequence was my fave.

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  Review by Jenna Ipcar ★★★

  They just don’t make enough movies about baby killing and ventriloquism anymore.

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  Review by noir1946 ★★★★

  Cary Grant biographer Scott Eyman calls Big Brown Eyes “one of the unheralded gems in Grant’s catalogue,” and it is that, my favorite of the greatest movie star’s early films. Raoul Walsh’s breezy comedy-mystery, one of the few films he cowrote after the silent era, wonderfully blends tough-guy gangsters and fast-talking screwball comedy that prefigures His Girl Friday.

  “Honey, you should have been a detective.”

  Grant is a New York police detective investigating jewel robberies masterminded by sophisticated Richard Morey (Walter Pidgeon). Grant’s Danny Barr gets unexpected assistance from his sweetie, Eve Fallon (Joan Bennett), who makes an unlikely transition from manicurist, at the world’s largest hotel barber shop, to reporter because she has a cute nose for gossip. Barr’s…

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  Review by DRMIII ★★½ 16

  HIGH TONE

  In his Poetics, Aristotle wrote as though a genuine tragi-comedy were unthinkable. There was no third mask between the cathartic howl of τραγῳδία and the κωμωδία’s satryric leer: one which, like Shakespeare’s Claudius – that arch-hypocrite (from ὑποκριτής, Greek for actor) – could weep from one eye and smile with the other.

  What would the Stagirite, then, have made of Raoul Walsh’s 1936 drama Big Brown Eyes?

  Though a century of entertainments – to say nothing of Eurpides – has prepared us to accept a mingling of genres, perhaps we ought to be more mindful of boundaries and cross them with caution, as Washington did the Delaware.

  Otherwise we might end up in the unenviable position of this…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½ 2

  In a perfect world, Cary Grant and Joan Bennett would’ve team up to solve crimes in as many movies as Powell/Loy did. A great time overall, the stars have great chemistry, everyone around them is almost as good, it moves really well between its lighter and serious sides and it clocks under 80 minutes. Raoul Walsh wrote and directed and its the best movie he did in the period between his great early pre code run and his miracle decade at Warner.

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  Review by ALEX KARA ★★★★½

  “Well, you know how newspapers are. They say anything. Freedom of the press.”

  “Yeah. Freedom.
  Too much freedom.”

  “Yeah just like you.”

  Big Brown Eyes has a quick-witted Joan Bennett in her most charming role, Cary Grant as an amateur ventriloquist who speaks with four different voices and a barbershop as the central location of the film - a perfect setup for an absurdly silly romantic crime thriller. Adored the fast-paced and naturalistic dialogue of the characters, especially in the beginning. The very endearing romance between Danny n' Eve is exactly what I expect from a pre-code classic.

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  Review by RetroHound ★★★½ 2

  Joan Bennett and Cary Grant crack wise and she can't decide if she likes or can trust him, but he's a straight shooter who's in love with her. Bennett is a manicurist at a barber shop (I guess guys used to get manicures?) and Grant is a cop. She keeps misunderstanding him and getting mad at him, but still must be crazy about him as she helps him with his case against a baby killer and the rest of the rackets. She becomes a newspaper reporter and helps him even more. The dialog is pretty snappy and fun.

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  Review by Mason 🎬 ★★★★

  Big Brown Eyes is one of my personal guilty pleasures. Ever since I saw it back in 2023, it’s been one that I consider highly underrated. I understand that there are some issues with it, but watching Cary Grant and Joan Bennett solving mysteries easily makes me forget them. Asides from Bennett and Grant, there’s a nice supporting cast that includes Walter Pidgeon and Lloyd Nolan. However, this is Grant and Bennett’s movie. They dominate the screen with their radiant chemistry and screen presence. Bennett in particular really shines as this smart manicurist turned reporter turned manicurist AGAIN. Cary’s great as “the handsome dick” police sergeant Danny Barr, though his performance is a little rough around the edges like most…

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  Review by Gentry ★★

  “You’re smart, you’ve got a nimble brain.”

  Who knew thugs and thieves were so concerned with nail hygiene? Joan Bennett is the manicurist turned reporter turned super sleuth, Eve Fallon. Cary Grant is the “handsome dick.” Bennett and Grant bond over their mutual disgust for the crooks that frequent her salon, but for some reason, she is incredibly pissy toward him for the entirety of the film, apparently either really stupid or preternaturally cynical to think he’s interested in the old woman who calls on him to help find her stolen jewels (it’s dumb). Notable for featuring a dead carriage baby in a park shootout, and Grant doing ventriloquism, but neither the comedy nor the crime worked for me. Also: I know the etymology is questionable, but it still makes me wince to hear Grant repeatedly refer to lawyers as “shysters.”

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  Review by Bre

  Happy birthday to the incomparable Cary Grant!

  This is a surprisingly fun mystery, with Cary Grant and Joan Bennett being an incredibly entertaining pair.

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  Review by Larry Taylor ★★★½

  Nice breezy fun time at the movies where a baby is murdered.

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  Review by Silversaxophone ★★★

  Raoul Walsh ignites movement in front of the camera. It's a hive of activity and you forget that long scenes remain anchored in one set, such as the beauty salon in the first fifteen minutes. It's the illusion of pace without frenetic cutting. Walsh leaves that for the Chorus of customers commenting on plot development and character. Walsh's direction is breathtaking, and one wonders if Howard Hawks might have been taking notes. If he was, he might have also noted the ordinary script and the somewhat bland characterisations co-authored by Walsh. Joan Bennent's manicurist turned ace reporter is hard boiled but annoyingly obtuse when it comes to her love life. Walter Pidgeon is also unmemorable as a stylish thief in…