O Manda-Chuva

The Big Shot is a decent crime picture, reminiscent in theme to the previous year's High Sierra, which also featured Humphrey Bogart. Director Lewis Seiler was no Raoul Walsh but handles the familiar plot about the doomed criminal nicely, giving it shadings of atmosphere, urban and rural. The movie is one of the last flowerings of the second major wave of gangster pictures, of which it is a late example. Bogart is excellent, yet one can sense the genre running out of steam despite his performance and the nice pace of the film. There were more pressing issues at hand by the time the movie was made, such as a world war with Germany and Japan, as overall the activity of the criminals in the movie seem small potatoes compared to what was going on elsewhere, in Europe and in the Pacific.

This movie is very similar to Bogie's first movie "Up the River." Having seen all but three of his movies I was not expecting very much and chose to watch it only because it was one I had never seen before. I was pleasantly surprised by the acting. But, the location shoots and especially the stunt work was extremely well done for the time. The first car crash was very different than those of most movies that are over 65 years old, showing a car crashing through other cars and then flying off of a ramp and rotating through the air before it exploded into flames. The location shots taken in the snow covered high mountain country provide glimpses of vintage life in rural America of 1940. And the ending car chase and motorcycle stunts were very impressive for stunt men without the safety equipment that is now used. Even the dance scenes that "Dancer" was in were also enjoyable and revealed some of the dancing style of vaudeville. All in all the movie was entertaining and worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of Bogart and early stunt work.

A very exciting fast paced gangster saga, It's interesting seeing Bogart reverting back to his 30's style tough guy persona one more time immediately after his acclaim as Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" & just before his next triumph as Rick Blaine in "Casablanca". This was a transitional period in his career when his image was being redefined from gangster to anti hero. This movie was released at the wrong time, it was seen either too late or too early. Had it been made & seen in the 1930's or had it been withheld & shown in the postwar years along side of "White Heat" it might've went over like gangbusters. But not in 1942 during World War II? We had much more pressing concerns & worries with the Japanese & the Germans. This movie is every bit as good as "High Sierra" if not better, the car chase scene down the slippery slope is exciting & well done. This film literally puts the pedal to the metal & never let's up once. The story moves at lightening speed & will blast you right out of your seat. The Big Shot marked the last time Humphrey Bogart would appear as a gangster, he would not play a gangster for another 13 years until he appeared in a television production revival of "The Petrified Forest" recreating his famous Duke Mantee character. Bogart returned to the movies bringing Duke Mantee with him as escaped convict Glenn Griffin in the William Wyler directed suspense thriller The Desperate Hours in 1955. The Big Shot is essential viewing for fans of old gangster movies & for Bogart fans as well, I like both. So get your tommy guns & tear gas out & enjoy this shoot em up farewell send off to an exciting genre!

You can't be mistaken by a Warner Brothers yarn from the forties or thirties, especially a gangster, crime flick. This one has no Jimmy Cagney nor Edward G Robinson as the lead, but Humphrey Bogart. He was then rising to the stardom, to the top, but he had not reached it yet...The director is Lewis Seiler, whith whom Bogie already made CRIME SCHOOL and KING OF THE UNDERWORLD. Seiler was a solid director, maybe unfairly negmected, forgotten, who gave us good war movies. However he was not Raoul Walsh nor Michael Curtiz. Bogart is here impressive, nearly terrific in a gangster role, a rough, tough hoodlum for whom the audiences can feel the greatest empathy.

"The Big Shot" is a 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Irene Manning. Bogie is a career criminal, Joseph Berne, who is sent to prison for life for something he didn't do - set up by his own attorney (Stanley Ridges), who finds out that Joe is involved with his wife (Manning). Berne's fake alibi is provided by a young salesman, George Anderson, who needed money and instead gets a year for perjury. It's George's predicament later on that gives Joe a crisis of conscience.

After years of toil at Warner Brothers, Bogart is now a star, and his image as a gangster is softening and would morph with Casablanca into an anti-hero. He does a good job in this film - his story is told in flashback from the prison hospital. The script is problematic. One glaring offense is that the police locate a criminal in a cabin. When they get there, they don't surround it, and their prey, not even aware the police are there, go out the back and drive away. Most viewers are aware that the cops surround an edifice. Not here. The movie is not particularly well directed by Lewis Seiler. There is, however, an exciting car chase.

Of interest here is George's girlfriend, the beautiful and doomed Susan Peters, who less than three years later would be paralyzed in a hunting accident. She was signed by MGM after this film. 1942 was a banner year for her, as she was nominated for a supporting Best Actress Oscar for "Random Harvest." She died in 1952. One of Hollywood's saddest stories.