Tugboat Annie

We really lost a great actress in 1933 when Marie Dressler passed away. And it's great to see for her last role Dressler team up with Wallace Beery for another tugboat movie after their success with "Min and Bill (1930)". The film is filled with alcoholic comedy as Beery always have to have slurp and messes things up. But at the same time that comedy also serve as sad realistic drama about alcoholism and how it keeps them down and close to ruin their lives. It really is a touching movie.

You don't realize how long a movie can be when you're coasting on drunk-tries-to-hide-his-drunkenness jokes for most of the running time. If this is remembered fondly, it's for one of two reasons: one is the climactic boiler scene, which is amazingly suspenseful, and the other is Dressler's salty performance, hard-nosed and soft at the same time. Fav line: "I've got to go and see what he's doing ... and tell him not to."