MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

kidboots Joan Blondell was always surprised to see James Cagney, her friend from Broadway days, become such a movie success but Joan could well have become a big star also if she had made fame her main motivation. As it was she was always happy and willing to do any movie Warners gave her, even starting one before she had finished the last, she just wasn't that choosy!! The public soon fell in love with her sassy character and were rewarded by seeing her in so many movies!!Even though theatre managers were often encouraged to put on phoney stunts and demonstrations to coincide with new movie releases they wanted to publicize, this movie had so much going for it that the author Ward Morehouse created parties and parades especially for it. Producers of some recent agonizingly boring epics should turn to films like "Central Park" for inspiration - but they probably won't!! There is more action and plot in just under 58 minutes - gangsters, romance, wild animals, all set in Central Park - they even once had a Casino there!!!Dot (Blondell) is an out of work actress and Rick (Wallace Ford) a rodeo star from Arizona who do a little flirting by a hot dog stand in Central Park. They are both from the vast army of the unemployed but their luck is soon to change. Dot is approached by two men claiming to be policemen, they want her for some mysterious undercover work because of her good looks and Rick, because he was helpful to soon to be retired policeman Charley Cabot (Guy Kibbee) is given the job of washing the police motorcycles (for the princely sum of $2!!). Charley has a secret - he is going blind but because he is desperate to retire with a pension the only person who knows is Eby (Henry B. Walthall, playing with his usual dignity, in a minor role). So when he comes across Robert Smiley, an ex-lion keeper who has just escaped from an insane asylum, all he sees is a blur and he mistakes him for one of the other keepers. Smiley has an insane hatred of people who are cruel to animals and he has come back to see Luke (the usually docile Charles Sellon), a keeper who hates wild animals and takes great delight in teasing them, get his just desserts!!Meanwhile Dot has been employed as a beauty contest winner who is to help the "police" "look after" the money from a society dinner where guests have paid $100 a ticket - the money is to go towards helping the unemployed. Rick get suspicious when he overhears a conversation and is taken to the gangsters apartment where his skills as a rodeo performer come in handy.All the action takes place during a single day (and night) and climaxes with the escape of a lion who terrorizes the patrons of the Casino. Blondell does her usual sterling job and Wallace Ford proves, once again, he was a really under rated leading man, excelling at the "working class hero" parts!!

MartinHafer Generally, Warner Brothers made terrific films--lots of fun and with some wonderful actors. However, this B-movie just never seemed to gel for me--mostly because the script was so bizarre and uneven. Even with Joan Blondell, Wallace Ford and Guy Kibbee trying their best, it's still a sub-par film.The film is unusual for a Depression-era movie in that it actually acknowledges that their is a depression!! Too often, films throughout the 1930s were about rich society folks--yet most people in the country were barely scraping by. Here, the film finds Ford and Blondell homeless and without jobs. They manage to scrape by here and there but have to sleep in the park because they just haven't got enough money even to eat. Later, their need for a job manages to merge with another plot--this one involving a cop with bad eyesight (Kibbee) and an escaped maniac. Both plots (particularly the Kibbee one) are just weird and tough to connect with. How they later intersect is also odd. Now I like novel ideas--but they need to be realistic or at least enjoyable. However, I just kept waiting and waiting for some payoff but by the end of the film I just came to realize that this was a bit of a bust. Not terrible--but also not particularly good. Considering that Blondell was a very new starring actress, this sort of throwaway role isn't all that surprising. Most actors did a few turkeys like this on their role to stardom.

ChorusGirl Set entirely in Central Park (albiet a studio bound, rear projection version of it), this is one of Warner's most fascinating 60-minute lightning rounds, with Joan Blondell as the out of work Roxy usherette who gets caught up with gangsters (in her first scene she steals a hot dog from a vendor, out of starvation). On hand are Wallace Ford as the "Forgotten Man" who falls for her, Guy Kibbee as a Central Park cop, and John Wray as a sociopath on the loose.If that isn't enough plot for an hour, there's a lion that escapes from the Central Park Zoo, and I don't know if it's special effects or just brilliant editing, but I'd swear that the extras and stunt men where REALLY put in harm's way with this animal, especially in the horrifying scene in the cage.I have to address another reviewer's question about the "appeal of Joan Blondell." I totally disagree. Blondell's pre-code output is worthy of its own book. She was a master of rapid fire dialogue and wisecracks, with excellent comic timing. She instilled energy into films that are now unimaginable without her (GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933, NIGHT NURSE, BIG CITY BLUES, DAMES, etc), and if nothing else was the best co-star James Cagney ever had (BLONDE CRAZY, FOOTLIGHT PARADE, HE WAS HER MAN). I'd vote that her performances survive intact, and haven't dated a bit in 75 years (which I cant say for Garbo, Shearer, Crawford and some other shining lights of the era).

David (Handlinghandel) This movie is beautifully photographed. George Cukor did well by Central Park a couple decades later. In between (and after) -- has the beauty been paralleled?In this Central Park, there are actual sheep in Sheep Meadow!There are also the always marvelous Joan Blondell, Wallace Ford, a lion, gangsters, a touching cop losing his eyesight, and as many plots as there are in "Grand Hotel" (though this movie seems less dated than that more famous one.)