Ruth and Chick at Union Depot
Union Depot (1932) is a pre-code film starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Blondell and a plethora of stock Warner Bros players from the era.
Chick (Fairbanks Jr.) and his bud, Scrap Iron (Guy Kibbee), have just been released from jail for vagrancy and are ready to ride the rails once again. They’re at the union depot waiting for the next train when by chance Chick picks up a few hundred dollars. He treats himself to a new suit and Ruth (Blondell) for some good times.
To Chick’s horror, Ruth isn’t a prostitute, but he decides to treat Ruth with a fare to Salt Lake City since she’s down on her luck. Chick plays the gentlemen for the day until he finds himself mixed up with counterfeit money.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Dr. Bernardi is stalking Ruth and might be suffering from syphilis to boot.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Chick takes Ruth to a private dining room for a meal and quickie. But once he realizes that Ruth isn't a prostitute, he abruptly stops. Ruth is left wondering why.
- Attempted Rape: Ruth is running away from Dr. Bernardi, a perverted scientist who made her read salacious novels and then tried to rape her.Ruth: I'm no pollyanna or sweet sixteen either. I've been around. I know what it's all about, but, geeh, I always try to keep decent. There's a few things I draw the line on. Dr. Bernardi is one of themChick: Go ahead. You got me interested. Then what'd he do?Ruth: Well, at first he said his eyes were bad, and he couldn't read, so he offered to pay me fifty cents an hour to read to him at night after work. Well, that was all right, but the kind of books he read...[laughs] Gee, I didn't know they printed them so bad. He said he got them in Europe.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ruth heads out on a train to a new job while Chick stays behind. They’ll always remember each other but will probably never see each other again.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Fake money! Chick gets ahold of a violin case at the station. He goes to pawn it only to discover that it's full of cash instead of a violin. What he doesn't know is that the money is counterfeit.
- Clear My Name: Chick (and Ruth given that she’s treated as an accessory) proves that he wasn’t involved in the cash counterfeit scam by proving he didn’t shoot one of the investigators.
- Divorce in Reno: One of a series of vignettes at the station, a woman and her friend muse about her 6 weeks in Reno.
- Evil Cripple: Dr. Bernardi, the insane pervert stalking Ruth, walks with a limp and cane.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: If being an Evil Cripple weren't enough, Dr. Bernardi also wears dark sunglasses indoors.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Selling yourself under the right circumstances is alright given that it’s The Great Depression but causing actual harm to others is not okay.
- Hobos: Chick and Scrap Iron are riding the rails and picking up cons as they go.
- Impersonating an Officer: Chick steals an Information Clerk’s uniform only to accidentally return it to him in the washroom.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Once Chick shaves off that stubble, he’s handsome Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
- Hypocritical Humor: A woman bids her husband, a porter, goodbye on the train platform, saying "Don't you go two-timing me!". As the train pulls away the woman's boyfriend walks up, and she says with satisfaction that her husband will be gone for seven days.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chick is rough around the edges because of his circumstances but is a genuinely nice guy.
- Leg Focus:
- A starlet on her way to Hollywood is posing for the press as she stands on the train. A photographer asks "Can we have a little bit more of those legs please?", and she hikes up her skirt to the knee.
- The first thing Chick notices when he sees Ruth his her shapely legs. Another scene has Ruth notice a run in her stocking, which of course is an excuse for Blondell to dangle her leg in front of the camera—and also a reason for creepy Dr. Bernardi, hiding behind a bench, to gawk at her.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: Ruth gives the same sob story a real prostitute gives to Chick. Although Chick rejects the actual prostitute, he picks up Ruth because he likes that her hustle isn’t as obvious.
- Mock Millionaire: With more dough than he can shake a stick at, Chick decides to be generous and gets to be a gentleman for a day.
- Money to Throw Away: When Chick gets the hundred bucks, he happily uses it in his ruse with Ruth.
- Plot Hole: Somehow, despite the fact that Chick is both One Head Taller and much slimmer than the friendly drunkard (played by Warners stock player Frank McHugh) who leaves his suitcase behind in the restroom, the suit that Chick retrieves from the suitcase fits him.
- Pretty in Mink: Chick buys Ruth a pretty travelling suit that has mink collars.
- Record Needle Scratch: When Chick realizes Ruth isn’t putting out because she’s not a hooker, the record that was playing immediately stops.
- Streetwalker: The reason that Chick mistakes Ruth for a hooker is that the train station is teeming with them. One streetwalker sees some Horny Sailors on leave and gleefully proclaims "The fleet's in!".
- Train-Station Goodbye: Chick and Ruth say tearful goodbyes knowing that they’ll never see each other again.
- Uncle Tomfoolery:
- Some painfully racist humor with the bug-eyed, giant-toothed black washroom attendant.
- More racist humor with a black porter, who comes into a dress shop looking for Ruth, and says "I disremember her last name."
- Visual Title Drop:
- The first shot of the film shows the "UNION DEPOT" sign above the front entrance.
- Also Book Ends, as a neon sign flashes "UNION DEPOT" above the station as Chick and his buddy walk away.
