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In the lesser known film, the noir crime drama The Big Shot, Humphrey Bogart played crime boss Duke Berne and Irene Manning as the woman he falls in love with.
Bogart plays Duke Berne
The Big Shot has some exciting action sequences, particularly a car chase in perilous snowy conditions, but the script is too predictably melodramatic
Having reached stardom with such projects as The Maltese Falcon and High Sierra, both in 1941, this would be the last film in which former supporting player Bogart would portray a gangster for Warner Bros.
He would play a gangster one last time in his penultimate film, The Desperate Hours, distributed by Paramount.
Although The Big Shot entered production after Across the Pacific, it was released nearly three months earlier.
Considered one of Bogart’s lesser-known works, The Big Shot describe it as an unexceptional throwback to his earlier gangster films.
It tried to benefit from the success of the superior crime drama, High Sierra (1941), directed by Raoul Walsh.
The Big Shot marked the end of Bogart’s long run of gangster movies. Later in 1942 came Casablanca, which made Bogart Hollywood’s biggest star.
The film was a success, earning $939,000 domestically and $844,000 in foreign markets.
It was released on DVD by Warner Archive in 2015.
Cast:
Humphrey Bogart as Joseph “Duke” Berne
Irene Manning as Lorna Fleming
Richard Travis as George Anderson
Susan Peters as Ruth Carter
Stanley Ridges as Martin T. Fleming
Minor Watson as Warden George Booth
Chick Chandler as Frank “Dancer” Smith
Joe Downing as Frenchy (as Joseph Downing)
Howard Da Silva as Sandor
Murray Alper as Quinto
Roland Drew as Faye
John Ridgely as Tim
Joe King as Prosecutor Toohey (as Joseph King)
John Hamilton as Judge
Virginia Brissac as Mrs. Booth
William Edmunds as Sarto
Virginia Sale as Mrs. Miggs
Ken Christy as Kat
Wallace Scott as Rusty
