A naive busboy’s devotion to a selfish nightclub singer is tested after an accident leaves her paralyzed.
In the world of Damon Runyon’s Times Square, unassuming busboy Agustus ‘Little Pinks’ Pinkerton, II (Henry Fonda) is devoted to glamorous but cruel nightclub singer Gloria Lyons (Lucille Ball). Gloria, whose personal creed is that “a girl’s best friend is a dollar,” heartlessly rejects his affection. However, when a sudden accident leaves her confined to a wheelchair, her fair-weather friends abandon her. Stripped of her fame and mobility, Gloria is forced to rely on the one person who has always been loyal: the ever-faithful Little Pinks.
Produced by Damon Runyon from his own story, this tragicomic romance presents its two leads in roles that play against their established screen personas. Henry Fonda’s characteristic decency is channeled into the part of a hopelessly devoted busboy, while Lucille Ball, years before becoming a television comedy titan, delivers a performance of cold, sharp-edged glamour. The film inhabits Runyon’s distinctive world of hustlers and dreamers, where sentimentality is filtered through the cynical backdrop of Broadway’s underbelly. It is an unusual pairing for the stars, pitting Fonda’s gentle nature against Ball’s calculating cruelty.
Production Co: RKO / 88 minutes / 1942
Director: Irving Reis
Screenplay: Leonard Spigelgass, Damon Runyon, Mort Greene
Main Cast: Henry Fonda (Agustus ‘Little Pinks’ Pinkerton, II), Lucille Ball (Gloria Lyons), Agnes Moorehead (Violette Shumberg), Sam Levene (Horsethief), Ray Collins (Professor B), Barton MacLane (Case Ables), Eugene Pallette (Nicely Nicely Johnson)
