The Big Shot (1942 film)

The Big Shot
Directed byLewis Seiler
Written byBertram Millhauser
Abem Finkel
Daniel Fuchs
Produced byWalter MacEwen
StarringHumphrey Bogart
Irene Manning
CinematographySid Hickox
Edited byJack Killifer
Music byAdolph Deutsch
Production
company
Release date
  • June 13, 1942 (1942-06-13)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$417,000[1]
Box office$1,783,000[1]

The Big Shot (1942) is an American film noir crime drama film starring Humphrey Bogart as a crime boss and Irene Manning as the woman he falls in love with. Having finally reached stardom with such projects as The Maltese Falcon (1941), this would be the last film in which former supporting player Bogart would portray a gangster for Warner Bros. (He would play a gangster one last time in his penultimate film, The Desperate Hours, distributed by Paramount).[2]

Although The Big Shot entered production after Across the Pacific, it was released nearly three months earlier.[2] Considered one of Bogart's lesser-known works, contemporary reviews of The Big Shot describe it as an unexceptional throwback to his earlier gangster films, most likely trying to take advantage of the success of crime drama High Sierra (1941).[3] It was released on DVD for the first time by Warner Archive early in 2015.[4]

  1. ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 22 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. ^ a b Nollen, Scott Allen (2007). Warners Wiseguys: All 112 Films That Robinson, Cagney and Bogart Made for the Studio. McFarland. p. 317. ISBN 9780786432622. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  3. ^ McCarty, John (2009). Bullets Over Hollywood: The American Gangster Picture From The Silents To ""The Sopranos"". Da Capo Press. p. 170. ISBN 9780786738755. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  4. ^ The Big Shot at Warner Archive