The Big Shot

Director: Lewis Seiler Lewis Seiler

Overview

Just because Humphrey Bogart had been promoted to the A-list by way of The Maltese Falcon (1941), that didn't mean that he was completely free of such minor potboilers as The Big Shot. Bogart stars as mob leader Duke Berne, a three-time loser who tries in vain to reorganize his old gang upon being sprung from prison. Falling in love with Lorna Fleming (Irene Manning), the wife of crooked attorney Martin Fleming (Stanley Ridges), Berne ends up back behind bars for life, thanks to the vengeful Fleming's courtroom chicanery. Escaping during a prison variety show (dominated by Chick Chandler as an incarcerated blackface comedian), Berne makes a beeline for Lorna, who deserted the duplicitous Fleming when the latter railroaded an innocent young man into jail. Hoping to find happiness in a remote mountain hideaway, Berne ultimately realizes that he's no good for Lorna and spends the rest of the picture atoning for past sins.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/03/2015
UPC:	0888574265472
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	23,615

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Humphrey Bogart	Joseph 'Duke' Berne
Irene Manning	Lorna Fleming
Richard Travis	George Anderson
Susan Peters	Ruth Carter
Stanley Ridges	Martin Fleming
Minor Watson	Warden Booth
Chick Chandler	Dancer
Joseph Downing	Frenchy
Howard da Silva	Sandor
Murray Alper	Quinto
Roland Drew	Faye
John Ridgely	Tim
Joseph King	Toohey
John Hamilton	Judge
Virginia Brissac	Mrs. Booth
William Edmunds	Sarto
Virginia Sale	Mrs. Miggs
Ken Christy	Kat
Wallace Scott	Rusty
Joseph Dowling	Frenchy
Ray Teal	Motorcycle cop

Technical Credits

Lewis Seiler	Director
Walter MacEwen	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Humphrey Bogart has been down this road many times before in The Big Shot, and so have George Raft and many other "tough guy" actors. Shot is not a bad movie; it's just that its plot is entirely safe and predictable. Within the first few minutes of the film, you can pretty much guess where it's going and you'll hardly ever be wrong. For some viewers, that's fine; a certain amount of predictability is expected within a favored genre and there are rules that have to be followed. But Shot goes a bit too far in this direction. Still, it does have the requisite sharp, hard boiled dialogue; it does provide a number of good set pieces; and its lapses in logic, while obvious, are not too terribly disconcerting. It also has a jim dandy snowy chase sequence that's highly effective, and a very good prison break sequence as well. Most of all, it has Bogart. He may have played this kind of character numerous times, but he still plays it for all its worth in his highly imitated and yet really inimitable style. Irene Manning is a bit of a disappointment as the love interest, but there's good work from Susan Peters, Chick Chandler and Stanley Ridges.