Min and Bill

Min and Bill
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George W. Hill
Produced by	George W. Hill
Written by	Frances Marion Marion Jackson
Based on	Dark Star by Lorna Moon
Starring	Marie Dressler Wallace Beery
Cinematography	Harold Wenstrom
Editing by	Basil Wrangell
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	1930 (1930)
Running time	66 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Min and Bill is a 1930 American comedy-drama film starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery and based on Lorna Moon's novel Dark Star, adapted by Frances Marion and Marion Jackson.

The movie tells the story of dockside innkeeper Min's tribulations as she tries to protect the innocence of her adopted daughter Nancy, all while loving and fighting with boozy fisherman Bill, who resides at the inn.

Min and Bill stars Marie Dressler (Min), Wallace Beery (Bill), Dorothy Jordan (Nancy), and Marjorie Rambeau (Bella, Nancy's ill-reputed mother), and was directed by George W. Hill. Dressler won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931 for her performance in this film.

This film was such a runaway hit that it and its near-sequel Tugboat Annie, which reteamed Dressler and Beery in similar roles, boosted both to superstar status. Dressler topped Quigley Publications' annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll of movie exhibitors in 1933, and the two pairings with Dressler were primarily responsible for Beery becoming MGM's highest paid actor in the early 1930s, before Clark Gable took over that crown; Beery had a clause in his 1932 contract that he be paid a dollar per year more than any other actor on the lot.

From the original 1930 M-G-M trailer

Min, Bill and Nancy, the cobbled-together family that snared Marie Dressler an Oscar

Cast

• Marie Dressler as Min Divot
• Wallace Beery as Bill
• Dorothy Jordan as Nancy Smith
• Marjorie Rambeau as Bella Pringle
• Donald Dillaway as Dick Cameron
• DeWitt Jennings as Mr Groot
• Russell Hopton as Alec Johnson
• Frank McGlynn as Mr Southard
• Gretta Gould as Mrs Southard

In popular culture

Jack Kerouac, in On the Road, has his protagonist-narrator Sal Paradise compare Dean Moriarity and his second wife Camille to Min and Bill. Kerouac does not explain the reference, but it would be understood by contemporary readers that he was signaling that the couple had a contentious but affectionate relationship, with Dean the weak, ne'er-do-well and Camille the heart and soul of the relationship.

At Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World, homage to Min and Bill is paid in the form of a counter service restaurant. Min and Bill's Dockside Diner is in the shape of Bill's fishing trawler, and "floats" in Echo Lake near the center of the park.

External links

• Min and Bill at the Internet Movie Database