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19 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Funny and touching, with two of the leading stars of the day shining in the leads, 24 October 2000
10/10
Author: Robert Reynolds (minniemato@hotmail.com) from Tucson AZ

Min and Bill is a comedy first and foremost, but it has tragic undertones as well. The two lead roles are a pair that are rather shop-worn by life, played to perfection by Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, neither of whom would ever be called glamorous, but who were both among the biggest draws of their day. Beery and Dressler worked like a charm on-screenand are totaly believable in this film and Marie Dressler won an Oscar for her performance. One of the best early efforts and very much worth your time to watch. Recommended.

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19 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Marie Dressler & Wallace Beery At Their Rambunctious Best, 12 June 2000
10/10
Author: Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA

An old harridan, owner of a dockside dive, while fighting fiercely for the happiness of a young girl she's raised since an infant, still is caused constant problems by her boyfriend, the boozing captain of a fishing boat. But through violence & heartbreak, nothing can shake the true affection MIN AND BILL have for each other.

Marie Dressler was a phenomenon, almost a force of nature. Described once as having a face like the back of a bus, she nonetheless was Hollywood's greatest star the last three years of her life. She earned that position by her innate goodness, a quality that moviegoers could sense in all her roles. Here she gives her Best Actress Oscar winning performance and she is wonderful.

Equally memorable is Wallace Beery. Once characterized as having a body like an overstuffed laundry bag, he had the part of the lovable rogue perfected & patented. Very popular with the fans, with Dressler he created one of the legendary screen couplings.

The rest of the cast is really there to support the two stars, but Marjorie Rambeau does stand-out as a slattern who knows too many of Min's secrets.

A good representative of its era, this early talkie is sparked by the chemistry between Dressler & Beery. Some of the staging may be a bit stiff, but Miss D. & Mr. B. always fascinate. Location filming in an actual harbor also helps the movie considerably.

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Lead Performances & Good Atmosphere, 29 July 2004
Author: Snow Leopard from Ohio

The good leading performances of Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, plus the well-crafted dockside atmosphere, combine to make "Min and Bill" well worth seeing. Both Beery and Dressler have roles well-suited to them, and the two of them are thoroughly convincing in their relationship with each other. The actual story works all right, but mainly thanks to the leads and the settings. In itself, the story contains some worthwhile ideas, but some of the developments are too contrived to make it fully satisfying.

The main characters are interesting in their personalities, their imperfections, and in their relationships with each other and with the other characters. It's a pleasure to see Dressler and Beery in their scenes together, because with apparent ease they make use of - in ways subtle and not-so-subtle - the full range of possibilities in the way that Min and Bill relate to each other. Then too, the characters fit in seamlessly with the settings, which are also nicely done in themselves.

There's almost no need for much of a story, since it would be interesting just to see more of their daily lives. Most of the developments in the movie revolve around Dorothy Jordan's character, a young woman who has been brought up by Min. There are some thoughtful moments showing how she and Min feel about each other at different times, but at other times the script seems to miss some better possibilities. Dressler makes everything that Min does seem natural, but at times her skill is the only reason why it works. Thanks to her and Beery, it does work pretty well overall, and it is one of the better movies from the earliest years of sound films.

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
More Min Than Bill, 15 February 2007
8/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Given the running time of barely over an hour my guess is that MGM did not think Min and Bill would wind up the success it did. But the team of Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler proved to be box office. It also proved that you didn't necessarily have to appeal to that all knowing youth market to have box office attraction. Min and Bill was definitely for the senior citizen trade.

Director George Roy Hill created a real waterfront atmosphere for the telling of this story of an old woman who runs a cheap waterfront boarding house and the old fisherman who's her boyfriend. Min has a young girl living with her who was deposited on her doorstep by her mother who took off.

Years later the mother, played by Marjorie Rambeau comes back with a vengeance and wants her kid. The daughter is played by Dorothy Jordan who is now in a finishing school and about to be wed to a rich young man.

Of course this sets up the final conflict. Marjorie Rambeau deserves some accolades as well for her performance as a waterfront tramp.

Since the conflict between Dressler and Rambeau is what drives the film, Beery is around, but he's not central to the plot. Still even today he and Dressler provide a few good laughs.

Marie Dressler who was in her sixties when she won her Oscar for Best Actress, lived only four more years after this film was done. On the strength of this film, she became a box office draw, making something of a comeback from her days in vaudeville in the ragtime era where she was a star. She and Beery partnered again in the lighter Tugboat Annie.

Min and Bill though a real antique from the early talkies retains a certain charm that still comes through for today's audience.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Dressler's movie all the way!, 29 November 2005
10/10
Author: nellybly from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Dressler carries the movie. Beery is very much a supporting actor here, no matter what his billing was but he gives Dressler a run for her money. They made a good pair. Rambeau puts in a good performance, too.

The young girl is rather insipid but they usually are in these kinds of movies.

The older leads are playing people who have seen better days, though I don't think Rambeau's character really had too many "better days".

Dressler had never been pretty (watch "Tillie's Punctured Romance" 1914 starring her and Charlie Chaplin) but she had kindness and a certain sweetness that came through the characters she played, no matter how rough they were.

It was Dressler's movie. She darn near steals the show from Garbo in "Anna Christie" (also 1930). A force to be reckoned with.

Min watching her foster daughter (who she never formally had guardianship of) going off on her honeymoon and then being escorted off by the cops because she had shot and killed the real mother because the woman was going to blackmail her own flesh and blood (she had abandoned her in infancy to Min) really brings tears to my eyes. Bill was going to help her escape to Mexico on his boat (though she is almost robotic in her responses, as if it doesn't matter any more). The woman had actually attacked her with a hot curling iron when she felt threatened by Min (Min said she wasn't going to leave that room, though she didn't actually _do_ anything except stand in the doorway). Min shot her almost as a reflex. It had been established earlier in the movie that Min kept a gun to protect herself.

She has a slight, sweet smile on her face as she's escorted by the police through the crowd of onlookers who had watched the young couple. She didn't make it known to her foster daughter that she was in the crowd. She had seen the girl off to a good start. They're were going to settle clear across the country so it'd be unlikely they'd know what happened and Min would never tell why.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The film is all Marie Dressler at her cantankerous best, 17 February 2007
7/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Aesthetically speaking, this isn't a great film. In some ways, it looks like what MIGHT have happened had you taken a Popeye cartoon and aged the characters a few decades! Bill is played by Wallace Beery and he's basically a good natured drunk fisherman. Min is played by Marie Dressler and she's a very crusty lady who owns a combination barber shop, bar and flophouse. Of the two, Dressler is definitely the star and she spends a lot of time on camera behaving like a broken down old mule with a heart of gold--but she's very careful to hide that heart since it's taken her years to create her grumpy persona. For this sometimes funny and sometimes sad performance, Ms. Dressler earned an Oscar for Best Actress. This is a tad surprising when you see the film. This isn't because she's bad--heck, I'd watch ANYTHING with her in it because she was a wonderful actress. No, it's more the type role she played and the fact that Marie was old and ugly by Hollywood standards--generally people earning Oscars are just prettier! Plus, the type film (a slight film at that) this is seems pretty ordinary in many ways--not a big budget or high profile film.

Now as for the plot itself is about a girl that Min has raised to her teen years. It seems that not only does the state want to take away the girl but the girl's selfish alcoholic mother tries to insinuate herself in their lives. To me, though, the plot was mostly secondary. You really see the film for the character Dressler plays and especially for the funny and amazing fight scene she did with Beery (how the athletics in this didn't kill Ms. Dressler is beyond me).

If you like Dressler in this film, see some of her other films. She made many silent films (such as TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE with Charlie Chaplin) as well as wonderful sound films like DINNER AT EIGHT and the very touching EMMA. Unfortunately, when she finally became a first-class star, she was already in her 60s and died just a few years after receiving the Oscar.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Back on the Waterfront, 12 August 2008
6/10
Author: wesconnorsehny from Earth

Seedy waterfront hotel proprietress Marie Dressler (as Min) lives with a pseudo-family she has created. Her "partner" is Wallace Berry (as Bill), with whom she exchanges "flirts" for free rent. Together, they are surrogate parents for schoolgirl Dorothy Jordan (as Nancy), who was abandoned by lowlife mother Marjorie Rambeau (as Bella). Problems surface during Ms. Jordan's adolescence; she begins to draw the attention of both suitors, and truant officers. Then, her sleazy mother returns to claim her…

If you're looking at the comments on "Min and Bill", you may be interested in sampling Dressler's "Best Actress" performance. IMO, although she did win the 1930/31 Academy Award, this is neither Dressler's best performance, nor the best acted role by a woman for the year. During the eligibility period, both the nominated Marlene Dietrich (in "Morocco"), and the non-nominated Sylvia Sidney (in "An American Tragedy") were more worthy. Dressler was certainly deserving of an award, however; she had given a series of flawless performances, leading up to "Min and Bill".

As "Min", Dressler uses an abundance of her manners and fidgets; she is obviously not as well-concentrated or well-directed as in other films; but, she is always entertaining. During one of her most over-the-top scenes, she takes an axe to Wallace Beery. Dressler's best moments occur during her beautifully rendered finale. Mr. Berry excels, but in more of a supporting role than the title implies; and, Ms. Rambeau is a terrific "gutter-rat" rival. See "Emma" for a more award-worthy Dressler performance. And, see "Tugboat Annie" for a superior Dressler-Berry team-up.

****** Min and Bill (11/21/30) George Hill ~ Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Rambeau, Dorothy Jordan

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