For the 1952 British film, see Little Big Shot (1952 film)

Little Big Shot (1952 film)

Little Big Shot is a 1952 British, Technicolor, comedy and crime film, directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ronald Shiner as Henry Harkwood. It was produced by Henry Halsted and Byron Film.-Plot summary:...

.

Little Big Shot is a 1935

1935 in film

-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

 film directed by Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...

 from Warner Brothers Pictures. The movie stars Sybil Jason

Sybil Jason

Sybil Jason was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple.-Career:...

, Glenda Farrell

Glenda Farrell

-Career:Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin...

, Robert Armstrong

Robert Armstrong (actor)

Robert Armstrong was an American film actor best remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'Twas beauty killed the beast," at the film's end...

 and Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Isabella...

.

Plot summary

Mortimer Thompson (Edward Everette Horton) and Steve Craig (Robert Armstrong) are a pair of sidewalk confidence men working Broadway

Broadway (New York City)

Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...

 one step ahead of the police selling phony watches. Broke, they arrange to have dinner with Gibbs, an old friend thinking he will help them with some money, but Gibbs and his daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) don't have that much money too and think that Steve and Mortimer will help them with money too. At the time Gibbs is hiding from gangsters. After Steve, Mortimer, Gibbs and Gloria are finished with their dinner in the restaurant Gibbs gets shot outside by the gangsters who was chasing him. Steve and Mortimer hurry to leave the restaurant before they get hurt, but by mistake leave Gibbs daughter Gloria, Steve reminds Mortimer that they forgot about Gloria, but Mortimer doesn't care to go back and get Gloria, but Steve convinces him to. Gloria stay's with Steve and Mortimer for a night at their place and Gloria takes Mortimer's bed, so Mortimer has to sleep in the toilet. Later on they try to put Gloria in an orphanage, but Steve felt bad for Gloria because she was crying not to go there so he didn't give her to the orphanage. So Steve and Mortimer try to take care of Gloria with the help of Jean (Glenda Farrell), a hat check girl at their hotel they live in. Steve and Mortimer find out that Gloria could sing and dance so they try to make money off of her talents on the street, Gloria also helps them sell their fake watches too, Gloria finds out and she doesn't like the idea, but Steve and Mortimer still do it. Steve goes into a crap game with a gangster, but the gangster refuses to pay Steve the money he gambled, Steve threatens to kill the gangster and later on the gangster is actually found dead and Steve is the suspect for a crime he didn't do. Jean puts Gloria in an orphanage because she thinks that Steve and Mortimer ain't responsible enough to take care of Gloria. Another gang kidnaps Gloria to force Steve out of hiding, Steve later on convinces the gangsters to release Gloria, and just about as they are trying to kill him, the police, tipped of by Mortimer and Jean, arrive at the hideout. His name cleared, Steve marries Jean and adopt Gloria, and also open a roadside cafe with Mortimer.

Other information

Michael Curtiz filmed some scenes of this movie at real orphanages in Hollywood and used real orphans in this movie. Sybil Jason stated that a young Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

was in this movie, then an unknown star. No film historian or Marilyn Monroe biographer has confirmed that yet.