Central Park is a 1932 film directed by John G. Adolfi.
It's not quite an hour long but filled with plot. The film takes place in, you guessed it, New York's Central Park, over 24 hours. There are three distinct storylines.
- Dot and Rick (Joan Blondell and Wallace Ford) are two penniless, starving people (it's the Great Depression) who bond in the park over a couple of stolen hot dogs. Dot is approached by some plainclothed policemen and offered $100 in 1932 money for one evening of work. There's a charity benefit that night, and the cops have learned that a gang of thieves plan to steal the proceeds. Dot is to pretend to be a beauty pageant winner and to come to the benefit, where she will help the cops to safely collect the benefit money. What Dot does not know is that the supposed "cops" actually are the thieves.
- Officer Charlie Cabot (Guy Kibbee) is a veteran Central Park policeman. Charlie is suffering from severely deteriorating vision—in fact he's not far from legally blind. But Charlie is trying to keep that a secret, at least for one more week, when his pension vests and he can retire.
- Finally there's Smiley, a deranged former zookeeper at the Central Park Zoo, who has escaped from an insane asylum. Smiley has come back to the zoo to visit the big cats, because he has an extremely unnatural attachment to the big cats.
Tropes:
- Anti-Interference Lock Up: To prevent Charlie from interfering in his confrontation with Luke, Smiley locks the door to the lion house while Charlie is inside distracted by the tiger cubs.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: It's strongly implied that Smiley the insane zookeeper had intimate relations with some of the cats in his care. He is said to have offered a black leopard a box of chocolates. When he's arrested at the end, a cop reports that he was offering the leopard carnations and inviting it to go to the movies.
- Blind Mistake: Charlie's bad eyesight causes him to mistake Smiley for Oscar, one of the park workers, at a distance.
- Bookends: The same stock footage clips of the park—a crowing rooster, a boxer on his morning run, a carriage with tourists—appear at the beginning and end of the film. The difference is that the montage at the end also includes a shot of Dot and Rick walking away arm-in-arm.
- Cacophony Cover Up: Smiley takes advantage of the ruckus the zoo animals are making to attack Luke without raising the alarm.
- Cassandra Truth: Rick tries to warn the cops about the gangsters' scheme for the big event, but they dismiss him, believing that he's just trying to get into the event.
- Chase Scene: Once the gangsters make their move at the big event, it turns into a car chase scene with them driving off and Rick and the police driving after them.
- Chekhov's Gun: Charlie's failing eyesight is shown when he learns that Smiley has escaped from the asylum. It ends up causing disaster when he fails to recognize Smiley at a distance, leaving him free to attack Luke.
- Chekhov's Skill: Rick tells Dot that he once worked as a cowboy lassoing animals at the rodeo. He later uses the cord from some window blinds to lasso the mook that is holding him prisoner.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: Dot arrives at the hot dog stand and has scarcely been there a minute when a stray baseball smashes the stand's window. The vendor, believing Rick to be responsible, exits the stand to try and fight him; Dot takes advantage of this to steal a couple of hot dogs.
- Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: A rooster crows at the beginning of the movie and at the end to signify that 24 hours have passed.
- Cuteness Proximity: Charlie picks up and gushes over the tiger cubs.Charlie: [laughing] Ah, there you are you little rascal, you. Yessir, we're gonna have a lot of fun together, aren't we?
- Escaped Animal Rampage: A lion escapes from the zoo and runs free in Central Park, causing panic. It later ends up crashing an expensive venue, running about the place as the crowd flees.
- Extremely Short Timespan: 24 hours from one sunrise to the next.
- Eye Poke: When Rick is fighting the gangster holding him captive, he manages to get a stranglehold on him, but the gangster pokes him in the eye and is then able to shove him off.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Luke smashes Smiley over the head with a bottle during their fight. It doesn't do much to stop him.
- Gun Struggle: During the climax, Rick catches up with Nick and the two brawl while struggling over Nick's gun.
- Hometown Nickname: Rick and Dot call each other by their home towns/states a couple of times. Dot calls Rick "Arizona" and later "Peach Springs"; in return, Rick calls her "Three Rivers".
- Impairment Shot: Used to demonstrate Charlie's very bad eyesight. People are just blurry shapes.
- Impersonating an Officer: Dot, who is both gullible and desperate, believes the guys who show her badges and tell her that they're undercover officers who need a good-looking woman to help with a sting operation at a charity benefit. They're actually thieves who intend on stealing the proceeds from the benefit.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: For his part in allowing the Central Park disaster to happen, Charlie is suspended and forced to turn in his badge.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: The cops think that Dot knowingly participated in the robbery and arrest her. Dot, hoping to keep Rick out of trouble, insists that she doesn't know him and he just happened to be there when the thieves took the money. Immediately after this Rick is led into the room, and he says "Dot! I've been worried about you!".
- Last Request: When Charlie feels himself dying while they're trying to load him into the ambulance, he requests his stretcher be placed on the ground and for Eby to give him his badge to wear.
- Laughing Mad: Smiley the nutjob cackles "HA HA HA HA, now we'll see!", before locking Luke into the lion's cage to be mauled.
- Meet Cute: Dot and Rick are both hungrily eyeing a vendor's hot dogs. When a kid hits a baseball right through the hot dog vendor's glass window, the vendor angrily accuses Rick of trying to steal the hot dogs—and while he's yelling at Rick, Dot actually steals the hot dogs. She's scarfing one down soon after, when she sees Rick passing by and offers him one.
- Mistaken for Suicidal: Charlie and Dot first meet when he comes up to her out of concern, thinking her to be suicidal because she's on a bridge looking down at the water with a troubled expression. In actuality she was just waiting for Rick to get there and was anxious because he was late.
- Nice Kitty...: Smiley the insane zookeeper locks Luke, the lion tamer, into a lion's cage. Oscar is badly mauled but apparently survives.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: When Charlie expresses concern about the possibility of something messing up his record before retirement, Eby assures him that that won't happen. Charlie ends up having one of the worst disasters in the history of the park happen on his watch.Charlie: I've had a good record, Eby. If anything should happen now to make me lose...
Eby: Nothing's going to happen. Nothing ever happens in Central Park anymore. People have even stopped trying to commit suicide around here. - The Place: Central Park. Most of the movie was shot on the Warner Brothers lot but the film begins and ends with second unit footage from the park, including an opening aerial shot.
- P.O.V. Cam: The camera takes Charlie's point of view a few times, showing how blurry his vision is.
- Rambunctious Italian: The Italian hot dog vendor at the beginning has a short temper, getting mad at Rick for being the subject of Dot's attention and exiting his stall to yell at him for loitering. He also tries to fight him when he thinks that Rick broke his window.
- Retirony: If Charlie the cop can keep his deteriorating vision secret for just one more week, he can retire. He is, of course, shot and killed that night.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: What Dot wears for the charity benefit, as she impersonates a beauty pageant winner.
- Shoot Out the Lock: When Charlie is locked in the lion house, he ends up getting out by shooting the lock.
- Slasher Smile: Smiley has a wide, manic grin when he confronts Luke with intent to harm.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Smiley's lion head tattoo reflects his love of big cats.
- Tempting Fate: Eby, a bum who hangs out in the park and is friendly with Charlie, says "Nothing ever happens in Central Park anymore. People have even stopped trying to commit suicide!" The next 24 hours will include a restaurant heist, a high-speed chase, and a lion escaping from the zoo.
- Turn in Your Badge: Charlie fails to apprehend the violently insane Smiley, because half-blind Charlie mistakes him for Oscar. After he's forced to admit this, the police captain makes him hand in his badge.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Charlie's failing eyesight causes him to fail to recognize Smiley when he shows up at the zoo, mistaking him for one of the current park workers. He not only fails to stop him, but unwittingly aids him by mentioning the current whereabouts of Luke, who Smiley has a grudge against. As a result, Smiley ends up causing grievous injury to Luke by locking him in a lion cage, and said lion ends up escaping into the park.
- Unwitting Pawn: Dot unwittingly assists the gangsters in their robbery plan, believing them to be police officers she is helping with an undercover operation.
- Video Credits: Clips of all the stars over the opening credits, which was Warner Brothers house style of the era.
- "Wanted!" Poster: A wanted poster for Smiley, the insane zookeeper who just escaped from a mental hospital, prompts Charlie and Oscar to talk about why Smiley was in the nuthouse to begin with.
