Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

JohnHowardReid It is hard to believe that Lewis Seiler directed all of this film, remembering the very routine handling of his other Bogart vehicles: Crime School, King of the Underworld, You Can't Get Away With Murder and It All Came True. Most likely he took over the direction from some more inventive director and made a game attempt to follow to some degree the film's original remarkably visual style - e.g. the opening scenes of the flashback, a low angle camera tracking with Bogart through the seedy streets, the mood of depression and desperation set by the narration re-inforced by the moody lighting photography with its shadows and great blocks of black. There are odd snips of the original director's conception throughout: Bogart's face framed by doorways and curtains, a spotlight picking out the dancer on the stage, devices which are used both atmospherically and symbolically (Bogart is "framed" and the dancer is killed in a spotlight). Then there's the obvious one of the cigarette being stamped out before the end title. And there is a remarkable, brief-but-nightmarish montage routine with Bogie sent to prison a four-time loser, the judges rapping out the sentence and the high gates closing. There's also an effective use of mirrors in a couple of key scenes, and the action spots are excitingly staged and edited. But mostly the film is directed in Seiler's usual routine and unremarkable style - but it does have some great performances. The script has a couple of flaws. The dialogue tends to be cliched (in fact some of it could be transposed without change into one of those joke books on How To Write Dialogue For the Movies) but in the lips of such wonderful players as Bogie, Irene Manning (looking very attractive here in lighting and costumes), Stanley Ridges (perfect as the criminal mastermind attorney double-dealer), Chick Chandler (giving the performance of his career as the charming, talented but ruthless dancer), Joseph Downing (a ruthless thug to end all ruthless thugs) and others we love every word of it. The support cast is first-rate with Howard da Silva effective in a small role as Downing's running-mate, Murray Alper ditto as an unwilling stoolie, John Ridgely in a two-line bit as an eager but blind cop, Joseph King as the biding-his-time prosecutor, William Edmunds as the "No trouble in here please, Duke" sleazy cafe proprietor, Virginia Sale as a screamer and Ralph Dunn as the always-standing-around prison guard. Richard Travis is okay as the eager-beaver George though he has some sooky lines to say which he does not manage over well; and while Susan Peters has only a small part as his lady-love, she makes her court-room breakdown fairly convincing. The plot is improbable, but we don't mind that so much as the fact that with the film three-quarters over, the scriptwriters try to insert a little cosy domesticity and comic relief, which they do very badly and ineptly and quite jarring the mood of the rest of the film. A little deft re-editing could completely eliminate these objectionable scenes and improve the film enormously.

blanche-2 "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.

Neil Doyle 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.

DCBlank-5 This lost little bit of film noir featuring Bogart in his usual tough guy role (this film being made just previous to Casablanca) is not a bad watch for a lazy afternoon. There is nothing stellar about the plot, the performances, or the action, and some of it is even quite funny. Watch as the camera is pushed in at the actors' faces at key moments time and time again. Another fun part is the snowy car/motorcycle chase, a danger anyone who has fish-tailed their car on the way to work on a cold winter morning can relate to. If you haven't seen "Casablanca" or the "The Maltese Falcon," make sure you've seen those first, but you could certainly do worse than "The Big Shot."