Review of Big Town

I've always wanted to see one of Busby Berkeley's television assignments, and the "Big Town" DVD from Alpha Video managed to satisfy my curiosity. In addition to the somewhat static and dialog bound main feature, "Big Town", directed in a somewhat off-handed fashion by William C. Thomas in 1946, the Alpha DVD also gave me access to two of the 1955 television episodes starring Mark Stevens. One of these was directed by Busby Berkeley, but if you didn't bother to watch the credits, you would never guess in a million years that an extremely stylish director like Berkeley had anything whatever to do with it. There's nothing stylish about it at all. It's just a succession of big close-ups and dull delivery from a third-rate cast of desperate players like Mark Stevens. The only good thing about it is that the other TV episode on the disc, directed by George Waggner, is even less pleasing and much more of a waste of time!

Getting back to the 1946 theatrical entry, I'll admit that by the humble standards of "B"-grade supporting features, it's better than average, thanks to the strong performances delivered by Hillary Brooke, Phillip Reed, Robert Lowery and Veda Ann Borg. Yes, it holds the interest for about three quarters of its length, but then it falls into the trademark pattern of desperate writers and/or directors who have nothing to say, nothing to contribute, nothing to set the world on fire, let alone satisfy luckless viewers who are desperate for entertainment. It just flickers out. Miniscule production values don't help either.