Being a Chicago native myself, I’m almost attracted to any movie about the Second City just like a moth is attracted to… THE FLAME? EH?
One of the cute things about “In Old Chicago,” a Best Picture nominee from 1937, is that it’s constantly winking to the camera with jokes about how eventually everything is going to burn. The film documents the myth of the O’Leary family and the Great Chicago Fire, although not a shred of it is accurate to even the fabricated legend.
That’s all fine though, because Henry King’s film plays on Chicago’s legacy, corruption, style, mythology and undeniable allure. Tyrone Power and Don Ameche play two rival O’Leary brothers fighting for power in the city. Power is Dion, a rising star in Chicago’s “Patch,” the rugged, corrupt area of town where he’s opened a saloon right on the new trolley line and made a fortune. His brother Jack is an upstanding lawyer making no money, but his reputation precedes him and he ends up running for mayor against Dion’s business rival.
Dion has a lark of a romance with a cancan dancer named Belle (Alice Faye), a relationship which might be described as “rapey,” for lack of a better word, were it not for how campy and goofy it plays up their love. There’s an early scene where Dion, always the charmer, breaks into her house and wrestles her to the floor to confess his love, all the while she hurling vases and makeup holders at him standing in the doorway. Belle’s black housemaid in hysterics runs out to get a cop only to see them in love and making out, and “In Old Chicago” redeems this corny, ridiculous moment by knowingly repeating the same campy scene near the end of the film.
But the real star of the movie is the O’Learys cow and of course the fire. The final 15 minutes of the film are consumed in flames, and King does an impressive job of blowing stuff up real good. The intense social unrest of the segment hints at the past, present and future corruption of Chicago, even though 1937 when the film was made is a bit beyond Al Capone’s time to be a timely commentary. It’s a showy part of a fairly modest film that, although it includes at least three song and dance numbers, does not seem completely over budget.
The whole thing is workmanlike and effective, with a few impressive tracking shots as King purveys a restaurant or a series of bartenders filling from giant kegs. And as is true of most Old Hollywood movies, the character actors are a miniature delight with personality and nuances to fill their own movie, particularly a very small role from the much loved character actor Andy Devine.
So yes, like Chicago itself, “In Old Chicago” has a little something there that’s magical about it. It isn’t much, but at times the movie does IGNITE a little SPARK. EH? Eh.