Min and Bill (1930)

The curmudgeonly “Min” (Marie Dressler) owns a rundown hotel slap bang in the middle of the docks, where she has raised the foundling “Nancy” (Dorothy Jordan) with the help of the mischievous “Bill” (Wallace Beery). The thing is, now that “Nancy” is nearing her adulthood she is attracting the attention of some of the sailors - and that’s just the start of her adopted mother’s issues. The reappearance of the dissolute “Bella” (Marjorie Rambeau) also sets some cats amongst the pigeons as she happens to be the real mother of the girl and is determined to leave with something: either her child or some cash. Needless to say, “Min” has barely two nickels to rub together after scrimping and saving all of her life, but nor is she prepared to let the “clean” and “decent” young woman fall into the clutches of her ghastly mother. How to thwart her, though? She cannot take risks with her licence or she will lose her livelihood and end up destitute herself. Sometimes when I watch these films of subsistence living in the USA in the 1920s, I do wonder if many of the immigrants who arrived in ports like this might not have been better off staying put at home. Living in squalor, eking a few cents as best they can and always struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. It’s that effort that I found Dressler conveyed really quite emotionally here. Hard as nails, yet heart of gold. “Min” clearly loves “Nancy” and both women make that clear in their characterisations. Beery is his usual ebullient self, though here he’s occasionally henpecked a little as his fondness for the drink and for a bit of philandering gets him into trouble. The denouement is a bit rushed, but somehow still manages to serve as quite a testament to a devotion and a love that knows few bounds. It is a bit stagey at times, but Dressler and her facial expressions carry it engagingly for an hour with just enough light-heartedness from Beery.