Le caïd

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.

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 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.

In this crime drama from Warner Brothers and director Lewis Seiler, career criminal Duke Berne (Humphrey Bogart) is a paroled three-time loser, destined for a life sentence if he gets busted again. He tries to stay clean, but old compatriots coax him into helping out on an armored car robbery. Things go south, and he ends up behind bars, with nothing but escape offering any hope.

This is average material elevated a bit by Bogart's presence. The armored car robbery sequence is excitingly shot, as is the prison escape attempt, and a snowy car chase. The supporting cast is a bit weak, though Irene Manning and Susan Peters are both lovely to look at. This was a bittersweet film for me, as it was the last major Bogart film that I had not seen. Only A Devil with Women (1930) and Body and Soul (1931) remain unseen. I know it's a bit cliche, but Bogart is my favorite actor of the classic film era, so knowing that there are no more major films out there that I have not seen is a little bit sad. On a side note, I notice that this hadn't been shown on TCM until this year, after a 13 year absence from the channel, which is strange since it's a Bogart picture and a Warner Brothers release, with it only having been shown five total times since 1994. This could be due to the blackface performance that happens during the prison show sequence.

HUMPHREY BOGART once admitted that he had to spend years at Warner Bros. dodging bullets and writhing around on the floor as a bullet-ridden gangster type, before being taken seriously in other roles.

THE BIG SHOT is a prime example. It came at a stage in his career where he was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest stars ever, with CASABALANA giving him the iconic role of Rick and taking him away from gangster roles for awhile. But until then, he was still a full-fledged gangster star.

Basically, it's a grade-B yarn with IRENE MANNING (who starred in "The Desert Song" opposite Dennis Morgan a year later), as his romantic interest in a cast that includes SUSAN PETERS, STANLEY RIDGES, MINOR WATSON and HOWARD DA SILVA.

Bogart is an ex-inmate, a three-time loser trying to go straight and we see his story in flashback as he lies on a hospital bed. Lured back into a life of crime when he can't find a job, he joins Da Silva's gang and has to deal with romantic complications involving ex-girlfriend Manning, married to crime boss Stanley Ridges. He gets accused of being one of the armored car bandits and has to figure a way to get himself clear of a frame-up. Ridges frames him while posing as his lawyer and Bogart gets sent to prison for a life term.

The prison break scene is the highlight of the drama and rescues the film from a slow pace that only steams up toward the conclusion. Bogart has a moral problem. A good guy (RICHARD TRAVIS) who tried to prevent Bogie and friend from making a jail break, gets accused of being mixed up in the escape. When a prison guard dies during the attempt, Travis has to take the blame.

The plot takes a turn when Bogart decides he can't let Travis, an innocent man, take the rap.

Summing up: Worthwhile for Bogie fans, but we've all seen this kind of crime drama before.