The Big Shakedown

Pharmacist Charles Farrell goes into business with gangster Ricardo Cortez making counterfeit toothpaste and cosmetics. Soon Cortez wants to branch out into making medication, which Farrell isn't happy about. But Farrell wants to marry fiancée Bette Davis and give her financial security. Early Bette flick before she had really developed her style. She's fine but there's not a lot for her to do through most of the picture but worry about her guy. Charles Farrell is OK. Ricardo Cortez is a great bad guy as usual. Nice supporting cast includes Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, and Henry O'Neill. Fun cat fight between Glenda Farrell and Renee Whitney. Exciting climax you will not be able to predict!

Pharmacist Charles Farrell and fiancee Bette Davis run a marginal neighborhood drug store. Everyone buys on credit, and a national discount chain is moving in. Meanwhile, Prohibition-era beer baron Ricardo Cortez finds that no one wants his bad beer, despite his strong-arm boys. He gets the idea of counterfeiting toothpaste and such goods, and Farrell is just the by who can make them for him. But Cortez is looking for new markets, and when he has Farrell synthesize a popular antiseptic without the necessary ingredients, matters become more desperate.

John Francis Dillon's last movie as director -- he died three months after this was released -- is a well played cautionary tale, but it seems odd for a Warner Brothers movie. It seems more contemplative than the usual Warners fare, and the print that plays on Turner Classic Movies is darker than most; this highlights Sidney Hickox' glittering images of a shabby drugstore in a manner I haven't noticed before. Cortez is excellent, and Henry O'Neill has a nice role as the chemist who originated the antiseptic. The usual stock of Warner Brothers player show up, including Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Dewey Robinson, John Wray, and Robert Emmett O'Connor.

Charles Farrell, a great silent screen star, appears with Bette Davis and Ricardo Cortez in "The Big Shakedown," a 1934 film featuring Allen Jenkins and Glenda Farrell.

Farrell and Davis are Jimmy and Norma, a boyfriend-girlfriend who marry later in the film. They run a corner drugstore. Cortez is a post- Prohibition gangster, Dutch Baines, looking for a new racket. Patronizing the store one day, he realizes that Jimmy can make his own products, which are identical to ones on the market. However, he isn't selling them claiming that they are the commercial brands; he makes them so he can sell a house brand for less.

Of course, Dutch sees that if these products are sold under the commercial names, he can use their publicity and brand reputation to make a fortune. He talks Jimmy into making toothpaste and beauty products because Jimmy needs money. He's reluctant to do it and planning to quit when Dutch decides to go into medicine and have Jimmy make drugs. Jimmy flatly refuses; Dutch makes noise about Norma's safety, and Jimmy caves.

This is a typical crime film interesting because of the cast. Davis' role is an ordinary ingénue one that could have been played by anyone. She was still getting a build-up and hadn't yet become a star with a special image. She's blond and pretty. Glenda Farrell has the role of Dutch's girlfriend, whom he throws over. Farrell, with her distinctive speaking voice and likable personality always stands out. Cortez does well playing the tough, uncompromising Baines.

Charles Farrell, whom I used to see as an elderly man (your fifties were considered like the seventies back then) when My Little Margie was in syndication, was good-looking and popular in his day. He had a gentleness about him and also an earnestness which he displays here. He retired in 1941 to become a land developer, but returned for Margie, which was followed by his own show. Then he retired again.

Cortez's career as a leading man was just about over. Though he continued working until he retired, he also became a successful broker on Wall Street.

Of interest, the actor who played the young Jewish boy who buys ice cream (a cone was six cents), Sidney Miller, went on to become a director and composer, and actually revamped the Mickey Mouse Club for Walt Disney beginning in its second season.

Amazing that Bette Davis was the only one to stay full-time in acting.

B-movie without an original thought in its script. Naive protagonist used by some crooked hood. Check. Pretty ingénue who stands steadfastly by her man while hoping for domesticity. Check again. Wised up, gum chewing doll who gets double crossed, turns informant and pays a price. You bet. And on and on it goes. You can practically see the conventions of the genre click by as the picture unfolds.

It's not that the movie isn't entertaining if you like the formula but it holds zero surprises. The actors all do their jobs professionally. Charles Farrell, one of the better looking men to ever appear on screen, is earnest and callow in the lead but not very memorable. Ricardo Cortez, Allen Jenkins and many other familiar character actors whose livelihood during these years was playing hoods fill their roles expertly but again their roles are standard stuff. Also nobody could play the flashy moll like Glenda Farrell.

The only thing that makes this different than the hundreds of other programmers churned out by Hollywood during the thirties is the presence of a very young Bette Davis as the ingénue. She looks great in her extreme blondness and exudes her customary confidence on screen but her part is a nothing. It's no wonder she ultimately rebelled against Warners since they continued to stick her in junk like this even after she had attained star billing and an Oscar.

THE BIG SHAKEDOWN (First National Pictures, 1934), directed by John Francis Dillon, is not a story about the San Francisco earthquake. It's a minor crime drama taken from a story "Cut Rate" by Sam Engels dealing with a couple of business partners from opposite sides. Not as famous as other films of this nature, but notable for an early screen appearance of Bette Davis, going on three years as a contract player with another three years to go for super stardom status and out of movie quickies such as this. Second billed under Charles Farrell, best known for his twelve movies opposite Janet Gaynor for Fox Films (1927-1934), with career declining as quickly as it had risen, having much more to do here than Davis.

Opening with character introduction, the story begins with the daily routine inside a neighborhood drug store: Norma Nelson (Bette Davis), a druggist copes with customers along with its owner, Jimmy Morrell (Charles Farrell), a chemist whom she loves and hopes to marry. Though Jimmy is satisfied with his drug store business, it's Norma who feels he could do a whole lot better. Things start to improve for Jimmy with the arrival of "Dutch" Barnes (Ricardo Cortez), a racketeer who had made a fortune bootlegging beer, finding himself out of business after the repeal of Prohibition. Coming to the drug store for a headache power which he does not have, Barnes is given a substitute Jimmy has made himself that is just as good. After Barnes tests toothpaste products against those made by Jimmy with his mob, "Lefty" (Allen Jenkins); "Slim" (Dewey Robinson); "Trigger" (Adrian Morris) and "Shorty" (George Cooper), not being able to tell the difference, both Barnes and Jimmy go into business for a better career. Once Jimmy discovers he's actually selling counterfeit patent medicines and putting manufacturers out of business, he finds that Barnes refuses to release Jimmy from his obligation to him.

The supporting cast includes Glenda Farrell (Lil Durand); Henry O'Neill (Sheffner); Renee Whitney (May LaRue); Robert Emmett O'Connor (Regan, the Bartender) and Samuel S. Hinds (Mr. Kophlsadt). Though a straight dramatic story, Sidney Miller adds some humor as a Jewish boy taking notes of all his drug store expenses.

Although THE BIG SHAKEDOWN crams many situations into its brief 61 minutes, results are somewhat satisfying. With Farrell and Cortez carrying on much of the plot, it offers Davis nothing in regards of challenging range. Ricardo Cortez is good yet typical as the bad guy, a role in which he excels, though never ranged in the high degree of a Humphrey Bogart. Like Bogey, Cortez could excel in playing a good-natured hero just as well (check out his underrated performance in 1932s SYMPHONY OF SIX MILLION). Glenda Farrell (no relation to Charles) breaks away from her wisecracking character as Cortez's girl, only to face some consequences for her actions.

Never distributed on video cassette, THE BIG SHAKEDOWN began to gain some cable television recognition starting on Turner Network Television (TNT) in 1989 before becoming a permanent fixture on Turner Classic Movies starting in 1994 and availability on DVD. Although the drama offers no great shakes, THE BIG SHAKEDOWN is worthy viewing more for its Warner Brothers stock players, especially a young Bette Davis. (**1/2)