The Big Shot *** (1942, Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, Richard Travis, Susan Peters, Stanley Ridges, Minor Watson, Chick Chandler) – Classic Movie Review 6,902

The entertaining 1942 film noir crime thriller The Big Shot is a now forgotten assembly-line movie for Humphrey Bogart, who stars as crime boss Duke Berne, put on trial after a mistake on an identity parade. Irene Manning plays Duke’s old sweetheart.

Director Lewis Seiler’s humble 1942 film noir crime thriller The Big Shot is a now forgotten assembly-line chore for Humphrey Bogart and director Seiler, but they both show that they are thorough professionals with a need to entertain.

In between two of his greatest movies The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942), Bogart stars in this overlooked film, playing crime boss Duke Berne, a thrice-arrested hood trying to stay out of trouble – a bit of a problem since he is put on trial after a mistake on an identity parade.

The equally forgotten and overlooked Irene Manning plays attorney’s wife Lorna Fleming, Duke’s old sweetheart. They manage to share time together again after he stages a prison break.

The Big Shot is just another Warner Bros gangster B-movie, but it pulls off a clever trick of seeming to entertain for no discernible good reason. Bogart had finally become a big star, and it is his last film playing a gangster for Warner Bros, though he played a gangster one last time in his penultimate film, Paramount’s The Desperate Hours (1955). Gangsters were super popular characters in the movies in this era, but they were type-casting stars and restricting their range. George Raft and James Cagney were also trying to break free of the archetype, fearing a dead end for their careers.

Also in the cast are Richard Travis as George Anderson, Susan Peters as Ruth Carter, Stanley Ridges as Martin T Fleming, Henry Hall as Mr Carter, Minor Watson as Warden George Booth, Chick Chandler as Frank ‘Dancer’ Smith, Joseph [Joe] Downing as Frenchy, Howard Da Silva as Sandor, Murray Alper as Quinto, Roland Drew as Faye, John Ridgely as Tim, Joseph [Joe]  King as Prosecutor Toohey, John Hamilton as Judge, Virginia Brissac as Mrs Booth, William Edmunds as Sarto, Virginia Sale as Mrs Miggs, Ken Christy as Kat and Wallace Scott as Rusty.

The Big Shot is directed by Lewis Seiler, runs 82 minutes, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Bertram Millhauser, Aben Finkel and Daniel Fuchs, is shot in black and white by Sidney [Sid] Hickox, is produced by Walter MacEwen and scored by Adolph Deutsch.

The Big Shot went into production after Bogart’s Across the Pacific, but it was released nearly three months earlier.

It was released for the first time on DVD by Warner Archive in 2015.

Irene Manning was born as Inez Harvuot on July 17, 1912 in Cincinnati, Ohio. A Warner Bros contract actress and singer, she is best remembered as diva Fay Templeton in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), in which she acts, sings the song ‘Mary’ and plays the piano all at the same time. She starred with Dennis Morgan in both The Desert Song (1943) and Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944). Later MGM offered her a contract but dropped her without using her. She made a dozen films. She then did stage and starred on her own BBC TV show, An American in England, until 1951. She died on May 28, 2004, aged 91.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,902

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