Energetically Violent Hijinks

Cary Grant and Joan Bennett team up for thwarting jewel thieves and snappy dialogue in 1936's Big Brown Eyes. Directed and co-written by Raoul Walsh, it's surprisingly violent for its screwball comedy tone. And it's never so silly that it undermines its violence.

Danny Barr (Grant) is a cop and his girlfriend, Eve Fallon (Bennett), is a manicurist. She quickly gets a job on a newspaper during the film, though, and she wastes little time abusing her position to print bogus headlines.

Walter Pidgeon is also in the film as a rich and crooked private detective. He tries to seduce Eve in one scene by buying a whole counter of candy and perfume for her. Through all the machinations and killings, though, he always sounds cool and calm.

One of his henchmen accidentally shoots a baby dead in the park. Yeah, really. That's part of this romp, I'm not kidding.

This puts the spurs on the police department to finally nab these gangsters once and for all. Eve manages to put together more of the clues and lay more effective traps than Danny, even stealing his gun to shoot it in the street in order to scare a gangster.

It's interesting where the movie goes with the gangster who shot the baby. He feels no remorse but later he's presented as almost sympathetic when he prattles on about flowers while two of his buddies get ready to double-cross him.

Bennett is adorable and Grant is in excellent form. He has a really nice bit of action when he's held hostage by one of the robbers. He pulls a trick and then moves really fast to disarm the man. Cary Grant had some great reflexes, I must say.

Big Brown Eyes is available on The Criterion Channel as part of a collection of Joan Bennett movies this month.

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