Big Brown Eyes Reviews

Bennett is a wisecracking manicurist in a hotel barbershop (was there ever a 1930s heroine who didn't crack wise?) who meets anyone who is anyone in the film's Damon Runyon cast of characters. She is in love with Grant, a city detective who is also enamored of her but somewhat wary of her glibness. Grant investigates a jewelry theft carried out against the rich Gateson, and Bennett is jealous of his attentions to the wealthy victim. She loses her manicuring job and, in a bit of convenience that only Hollywood could create, she immediately catches on as a reporter and goes out to investigate a child's murder. Jewell is a witness who inadvertently informs Bennett that Fowley may be involved. She writes a story to that effect and Fowley, who is in jail, fears gang reprisals for having "named" the killer (he really didn't say a word, but Bennett abused the power of the press to intimate that), and as a result does, in fact, put the finger on Nolan. The subsequent trial is a travesty and Nolan, who pays off everyone, is freed. Bennett is fired and Grant quits the police force, but soon enough, a new intrigue begins, having something to do with jewel thieves and framing Nolan and a mess of other complications. Some truly dumb attempts at comedy in all the wrong places mar the overall effect of what might have been an enjoyable mystery.