The Big Shot is a 1942 American film noir crime drama directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Humphrey Bogart. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Plot
The film is told in flashback from a prison hospital ward, where dying gangster Joseph "Duke" Berne (Humphrey Bogart) recounts his story. A three-time loser who fears a fourth conviction will mean life imprisonment, Duke tries to go straight but is drawn into an armored car robbery plot orchestrated by crooked lawyer Martin T. Fleming (Stanley Ridges). Duke initially agrees to participate but backs out after being persuaded by Lorna Fleming (Irene Manning), his former lover who is now married to Fleming. Despite not taking part in the robbery, Duke is falsely identified as one of the gunmen. Fleming provides an alibi through a naive young man named George Anderson (Richard Travis), but Fleming double-crosses Duke, leading to a life sentence for Duke and a perjury conviction for George. Duke later escapes prison, and after a series of events including a car chase, a fatal shooting, and a final confrontation with Fleming, Duke clears George's name before dying from his wounds.
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, Attorney
- Minor Watson as Warden George Booth
- Chick Chandler as Frank "Dancer" Smith
- Howard Da Silva as Sandor
- Joe Downing as Frenchy
Production and Release
The film's working title was Escape from Crime. Production took place from early January to early February 1942. It was released on June 13, 1942, with a running time of 82 minutes. The budget was approximately $417,000, and it earned $1,783,000 at the box office ($939,000 domestically and $844,000 foreign).
Significance
The Big Shot is notable as the last film in which Humphrey Bogart portrayed a gangster for Warner Bros. Pictures, following his rise to stardom with The Maltese Falcon (1941). Although it entered production after Across the Pacific, it was released nearly three months earlier. Contemporary reviews describe it as a throwback to Bogart's earlier gangster films. It was released on DVD for the first time by Warner Archive in early 2015.
