Me And My Gal (1932)

A cop (Spencer Tracy) falls in love with a waitress (Joan Bennett) whose family has gangland ties. His quandary is to put a mobster (George Walsh) away without hurting the woman he loves. Directed by Raoul Walsh (WHITE HEAT). This pre code dramedy is just dandy as long as it concentrates on the Tracy and Bennett romance. Unfortunately, there's a lot of annoying comedic padding mainly in the form of a drunk (Will Stanton) who takes up too much of the movie's time although if you find drunks funny, you might be amused. Being a pre code movie, the film allows Bennett's married sister (Marion Burns) not only to have an affair with a thug (Walsh) but help him rob a bank and there are no repercussions for her character as there would be for similar characters post code. She lives happily ever after and her husband (George Chandler) never finds out. The best scene in the movie is Tracy and Bennett doing a sly parody of Eugene O'Neill's STRANGE INTERLUDE. Tracy and Bennet would reunite some 18 years later in FATHER OF THE BRIDE. With J. Farrell MacDonald and Henry B. Walthall.