Min and Bill Reviews

One of the most unlikely romantic duos ever to stroll across a screen was the pairing of 62-year-old bulldog Marie Dressler and big-bellied, 55-year-old Wallace Beery. Yet they made such a lovable couple in MIN AND BILL that they were teamed again in TUGBOAT ANNIE in 1933. Although MIN AND BILL is a heartfelt drama, most viewers recall its hilarious comedy sequences and the noisy relationship between Min (Dressler) and Bill (Beery). Min is the rough-and-tumble owner of a cheap waterfront hotel on the California coast; Bill is the local fisherman who is the object of her affections when she isn't doting on Nancy (Jordan), a sweet young girl whose mother deserted her several years previously. Nevertheless truant officers want Nancy living in a better environment and attending school regularly. Furthermore, local prohibition officers have been observing the cafe and appear ready to close it up. In a tearful scene, Nancy reluctantly leaves Min to live with the school's principal (McGlynn) and his wife (Gould). To make matters worse, Nancy's drunken, slatternly mother (Rambeau) appears on the scene, threatening Nancy's chance at happiness with the wealthy Dick Cameron Dillaway, in his film debut). Min to the rescue. A legendary star of the stage and vaudeville, Dressler watched her silent screen stardom of the 1910s wane until she made a triumphant return in ANNA CHRISTIE earlier in 1930. As a result of her immense popular success in MIN AND BILL and half a dozen follow-up vehicles, she was to spend her last years as MGM's (indeed, the industry's) biggest star before her death from cancer in 1934. She'd still make any list of the ten most huggable stars in film history.