Directed by John Francis Dillon
First National Pictures, Inc. Producer: Sam Bischoff. Screenwriter: Niven Busch, Rian James. Cinematographer: Sidney Hickox. Editor: Thomas Richards. With: Charles Farrell, Bette Davis, Ricardo Cortez, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins. 35mm, b/w, 64 min.
Two years and over a dozen films into her contract with Warner Bros., Bette Davis was still struggling to break through from studio programmers to the the A-list when she was cast in The Big Shakedown as Norma Nelson, the saccharine-sweet, ever-supportive fiancée of a pharmacist who falls in with gangsters. It was the kind of stock role that always rankled Davis but it set the all-important context for her game-changing performance as the malevolent Mildred in Of Human Bondage, released just six months later.
As Norma, Davis wrings her hands and worries after her beau Jimmy Morrell, played by silent film star (and later mayor of Palm Springs) Charles Farrell, makes a deal with a local mob boss to provide his gang with counterfeit toiletries. For ex-bootlegger “Dutch” Barnes (Ricardo Cortez, segueing from romantic lead in the silent era to sound-era heavy), it’s a new racket with a huge potential and he convinces Jimmy that there’s no harm in passing off Jimmy’s own home-made toothpaste as name brand merchandise. Pretty soon, Jimmy has enough money to marry Norma and the future looks bright until Barnes uses a murder rap to blackmail Jimmy into making prescription drugs that threaten the public health. When a pregnant Norma is given Jimmy’s tainted version of digitalis at the hospital during birth, resulting in the child’s death, Jimmy vows revenge and the straightforward gangster plot careens into over-the-top melodrama.
As a B-movie featuring several major stars in career transition—some up, some down—The Big Shakedown is exemplary of the films that shaped this pivotal period of Davis’ career in the years before she shot to super stardom.
Paul Malcolm
Preserved in cooperation with Warner Bros. and Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation from the original 35mm nitrate picture and track negatives and a 35mm nitrate composite print. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio. Special thanks to: Ned Price; and Patrick Loughney, Gregory Lukow, Mike Mashon, Rob Stone, Ken Weissman, George Willeman, and members of the Libraryof Congress Moving Image Section and Film Laboratory staffs.
