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The Big Night (1951)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
13 November 1951 (USA) morePlot:
A teenager comes of age while seeking revenge on the man who beat up his father. full summary | add synopsisPlot Keywords:
User Comments:
Wrong Woman moreCast
(Complete credited cast)| John Drew Barrymore | ... | George La Main (as John Barrymore Jr.) | |
| Preston Foster | ... | Andy La Main | |
| Joan Lorring | ... | Marion Rostina | |
| Howard St. John | ... | Al Judge | |
| Dorothy Comingore | ... | Julie Rostina | |
| Philip Bourneuf | ... | Dr. James Cooper | |
| Howland Chamberlain | ... | Flanagan | |
| Myron Healey | ... | Kennealy | |
| Emile Meyer | ... | Peckinpaugh (as Emil Meyer) | |
| Mauri Lynn | ... | Singer, Terry Angeleus |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
75 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
Australia:PGFun Stuff
Soundtrack:
AM I TOO YOUNG moreFAQ
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A teenager on the verge of becoming a man watches his father get beaten to a pulp by a gangster. This leads to the teen going on a short odyssey for vengeance, where he discovers some ugly things about himself and his father.
This is a short b-movie without much story, concentrating on the passionate lives of hard folks living in a 1950s cityscape. The teen is enraged, but he's also idealistic; in a night club he hears a woman belting out a torch song and is entranced; later when he gets to meet her, the teen tells her how beautiful he thinks she is, even if she is, you know, a black woman. The look of pain on the singer's face rips the heart out of the white teen, who for all his idealism still can't get over the fact that the singer is Negro, and he was transported by her.
This film has one of the great film noir lines ever. The father, a broken man who lost his wife when she ran out on him with another man, and who had chances to marry again but remained in love with that betrayer, tells his son, "Some men are like that. Sometimes a man loves one woman in the whole world. If she turns out to be the wrong one...well, it's just tough." That's the sense of this film: haunting loss that comes back and smacks you down, day after day. Strong stuff.