Little Big Shot (1935) User Reviews

Good Entertainment

[LynxMatthews · 7/10 · 12 April 2004]

I guess we were allowed to only have one Shirley Temple, so there were probably a few little girls given chances who did not do the box office and thus they have been consigned to the dustheap of the forgotten.

This little girl deserved better as she was quite talented. Mainly as an actress, she really put the character across, this cute, self-assured, gregarious little gal who befriends all she meets. The trick is not making her TOO adorable, and somehow she pulls it off despite scenes where she is crying on the steps of an orphanage or when her dog is kicked by an evil gangster. She's a little robotic in her Temple-esque musical numbers, but as an actress she had the chops. Only wish she would have shared some of the earnings with the black kids after she horns in on their street act!

As the lead guy, Armstrong really shines as a character we have seen before, the no-good guy who is turned soft by a kid. He makes it fresh by never seeming like too hard a guy to begin with, and not going too soft too soon. Horton helps out a great deal.

The girl ends up being exposed to a surprising lot of violence and emotional turmoil before the whole thing winds up. But that's what you get sometimes!

Definitely a Disappointment by Mike Curtiz Standards

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 10 October 2011]

A routine, if somewhat violent gangster melodrama, filmed on a moderate budget with worthy players struggling to bring some life into a routine array of the usual stock characters (which were still going strong when Abbott and Costello re-made the first scenes of the movie far more amusingly as Buck Privates in 1941). Admittedly, as said, some of the players try hard (too hard in the case of Edward Everett Horton, whose efforts serve to highlight the lack of inspiration in the writing of his lines and business), and Miss Jason is most definitely a worthy find. Unfortunately, despite her evident talents and her precocious maturity, there were several moppets ahead of her in the Hollywood pecking order, including box office giant, Shirley Temple. All told, by the high standards (script, budget, players) we'd come to expect of a Michael Curtiz movie at this stage (his previous film was Front Page Woman; his next, Captain Blood), Little Big Shot must be rated a big disappointment.

So thick with schmaltz and sentiment, it might be tough going....but at least it ends well.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 30 January 2010]

This is one of the most overtly sentimental and schmaltzy films I have seen in ages. It stars a child star (Sybil Jason) that is so adorable and perfect that she is tough to take seriously...and may induce comas in the diabetic. In support are Robert Armstrong (of "King Kong" fame), Edward Everett Horton and Glenda Farrell.

The film begins with Armstrong and Horton as a pair of two-bit chiselers. They are penny ante con men and are constantly in financial straits. When they meet an old friend, the friend and the two men mistakenly think the other is rich and they go out to dinner. The old friend brings along his sickeningly adorable moppet (Jason) and he soon runs away--the mob is trying to kill him AND he thinks Armstrong and Horton are so rich they won't mind keeping the kid until he can return. However, seconds later he's gunned down and the two men are stuck with the kid...and a mountains of debts.

The rest of the film consists of Armstrong trying to extricate himself from a variety of predicaments AND keep the kid. However, when the child's predicament is eventually discovered by the court, she's placed in an orphanage and the two men do everything they can to get her back.

The film has a ridiculously impossible but very exciting ending. I particularly like Horton in the finale, but the whole thing works so well that I could forget that the film was 100% contrived. But, this combined with the nauseating cuteness of Jason will most likely make this very tough going for most who try to watch it. It's entertaining but not one of Hollywood's finer moments.

Warners' Answer to Shirley Temple

[wireshock · 15 June 2001]

Adorable Sybil Jason tugs on the heartstrings of everyone save the most hard-boiled gangsters in this obvious attempt by Warners to come up with their own Shirley Temple. It almost works! Sybil plays an abandoned little girl whose innocence wins over a small-time con man (Armstrong) and his partner-in-petty crime (Edward Everett Horton). Indeed, Horton's presence here lends some humanity to the big lug that Armstrong plays--anyone with well-meaning bumbler Horton as his best pal can't be all bad. The gang warfare that underlies the plot makes for an uneasy ride for the little girl and the audience, however. Sybil is both charming and heart-rending as "The Countess", and the highlight is her rendition of the title song on the street to make some money for her new-found adopted father figures. But when the plot explodes in a burst of gunfire in a deadly police raid at movie's end it is clear why this movie failed at building a Shirley Temple-like franchise for Warners: falling back on their tried-and-true gangster formula, they mixed a bit too much death and danger into this story to make it a winner with family audiences. It's a shame, too, because Sybil Jason was definitely star material and could have given Temple a run for her money. (Jason later got to serve at the feet of the prototype herself (literally!) when she winningly played a Cockney chargirl to "The Little Princess" in 1939.)

Shirley wannabe

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 24 April 2023]

Mortimer Thompson (Edward Everett Horton) and Steve Craig (Robert Armstrong) are con-men working the streets and selling fake watches. They are broke and hope to make a play on old acquaintance Gibbs. They mistakenly assume that he's rich. Gibbs and his daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) are on the run from the gangster Kell Norton. After Kell kills Gibbs, the two cons take on Gloria as their charge. Jean (Glenda Farrell) is the hat check girl.

Warner Bros. Tries to make Sybil Jason as the new Shirley Temple. She can't do anything other than be a shadow of the superstar. In the end, she would play supporting roles to Shirley and that would be the end of her career. I have nothing against the child actress. She does all the things. She's cute. She sings and dances. She either has an accent or a lisp. She would be perfectly fine if not pushed by the studio as a Shirley rival.

Not for Animal Lovers or Young Children

[cdlistguy · 2/10 · 20 August 2022]

Too violent for young children. Also, not recommended for dog lovers because of animal cruelty that does not advance plot. // Glenda and EEH are great as usual, but can't rise above mediocre story.

Tiny Sybil Jason Scores Big In Comedy Caper

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 17 June 2001]

Two smalltime con artists find themselves in possession of their dead friend's infant daughter. Soon, the LITTLE BIG SHOT has the gents wrapped around her tiny fingers.

Here is the sort of cinematic fluff which Warner Bros. did so well in the 1930's: a little crime, some comedy & a dash of romance. Well-produced & entertaining, Depression Era audiences flocked to these pictures to forget about the real worries of the day.

South African Sybil Jason, all of 6-years old, steals the viewers' hearts right away. With her dainty accent & huge, luminous eyes, she is a real charmer and worthy of the top star billing she receives here. Today she is perhaps best remembered as Shirley Temple's servant girl sidekick in THE LITTLE PRINCESS (1939).

Robert Armstrong is first-rate as the tough, street smart peddler who protects the tiny tot. Outside of playing KONG's captor, the majority of his starring roles are quite obscure now. So, it is great fun here to see him play a fast-talking flimflam artist who melts at a child's broken heart, yet can duke it out with crooks like a house on fire. Blonde, brassy Glenda Farrell is perfect as a no-nonsense dame who sees through Armstrong's cynical facade. Farrell was a lady always worth watching, capable of slinging dialogue with the best of them, yet warmhearted & tender when need be.

Gaunt, nervous, Edward Everett Horton is wonderful as Armstrong's partner-in-crime. In a variety of cheap, goofy disguises, he is nothing less than hilarious as he attempts to fleece sidewalk crowds into buying worthless watches. He leads a small parade of character actors - Jack La Rue, J. Carrol Naish, Tammany Young, Ward Bond & slow-burn Edgar Kennedy - who, even in small roles, never fail to provide full entertainment value.

Damon Runyon again

[oneillrobyn · 4/10 · 21 January 2010]

Is this another Damon Runyon story, like "Little Miss Marker"? It all sounds too familiar. As far as giving way for the black kids in the film, look up Sybil Jason's biography and you might a bit of British Jewishness in there (her uncle Harry Jacobson was a British band leader), which didn't sit well with Hollywood in those days.

Maybe that's why she didn't get too far. I was born in Hollywood, BTW, and I know a lot of Hollywood stuff and stories. My schools were full of child actors, my mother went to junior high in Hollywood with Judy Garland, before going to the MGM Schoolhouse. And Ricardo Montalban was a classmate of my mother.

Glenda Farrell is gorgeous and glamorous, as always. And Edward Everett Horton as a soda jerk is hysterical.

Classic Must See!

[christilynn2000 · 10/10 · 7 September 2014]

This movie is one of the best and the cast could not have been better. Jason's acting and singing are superior and Armstrong, Horton and Farrell are amazing. Too bad Jack LaRue was often overlooked as a fine performer. This movie needs more exposure and hopefully Amazon will have it available soon for instant video. If you have not watched this movie, do it soon. Check listings at TCM and if you have a DVR, record it. I have watched it over and over and only wish I had a hardcopy. The thugs are creepy but Sybil's darling acting is stellar and her sweet accent just add more to the " I'm a Little Big Shot" is precious and priceless.

A lost masterpiece

[ancient-andean · 15 June 2001]

Five-year-old Sybil Jason, or "The Countess', with her wonderful clear English diction, is orphaned, and teams up with two cheap four-flushers, the con men Steve (Robert Armstrong) and Mortimer (Edward Everett Horton) on Broadway in depression New York.

What a masterful performance Sybil gave! A true work of acting genius. We first see her in the "Ritz" with her father, Steve and Mortimer eating a palatial dinner neither her gambling indebted father, nor the broke four flushers can afford. Abandoned by her father, Sybil ends up at the con men's cheap hotel. Later, lost on the street in Broadway with three black children, she performs masterful song, dance and imitation routines that can only be compared to the VERY BEST of Shirley Temple and Mitzi Green. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in cinema history, Steve abandons her at an orphanage where, sobbing, she carries a suitcase nearly as big as herself down the walkway and collapses on the stairs to the front door. Beyond that, you'll have to see the rest of the movie.

Sybil runs the gamut of emotions in her acting, always with her special girlish English accent. Her voice rings like a perfectly tuned bell. With her big brown eyes, she alternates masterfully between a little girl's joy, pain, laughter, longing, affection and fear.

The movie itself is extremely well done. Not your usual depression era child mush-fest, the movie works on many levels -- beyond the little lost orphan story, it is a masterful, tough gangster film, a love story, and a glittering, multi-faceted cinematographic gem of depression era Broadway street scenes.

Favorite line --

The Countess: "I'll be good. I won't say a word. I'll just sit in the corner and eat a lollipop"

Let's hope that the classic movie cable channels dig up some more of Sybil's lost films.

Remarkable.

[gkeith_1 · 10/10 · 6 June 2017]

Spoilers. Observations. Opinions.

Remarkable. Film in era of The Great Depression.

Two sidewalk con artists, obviously uneducated. I keep harping on that. They can't earn a living, much less their hotel rent.

Into their lives appear a little darling, akin to screen mini-goddess S. Temple. This is the typical orphan story. The child can sing, act and dance, earning money to put the crooks out of their misery.

Little big shot. Little sure shot. Little Miss Marker. Damon Runyon tales.

Stupid crook says the cops are coming (Horton). Should have spoken in code. Dumb idiot. Horton keeps hesitating in his speech, like a cheap version of Frank Morgan. Did you see Horton as the Wizard of Oz? No, you did not. I remember Horton from old Fred Astaire movies.

Jason thrown under the bus for S. Temple, who got tons more publicity. Temple got thrown under the bus for J. Garland (again, Wizard of Oz). Temple's career took a nosedive, after The Little Princess, in which Jason got lower billing as a slimy little slavey character. Also, another of Temple's swan song attempts was the half-hearted fairyland wannabe film (of Wizard of Oz) The Blue Bird, in which Jason got a supporting role of the sick child.

J. Garland was used up by Hollywood, and then conveniently thrown under the bus due to her "ill health", vis a vis at the same time the all of a sudden disappearance of LB Mayer. Sad, eh what? Temple got too old, married way too young, film career dying on the vine.

I never knew Jason starred in any film, but in Little Big Shot I am so surprised -- and in a good way. She sings. She dances. There is no S. Temple hogging the camera.

I study the Great Depression. I am a degreed historian, film critic and movie reviewer. I love song and dance films. I hate black and white, however.

A Gritty "Little Miss Marker"

[Torchy · 20 September 2006]

Warner definitely seems to have seen Sybil Jason as their answer to Shirley Temple, and this film takes many elements from "Little Miss Marker", which Shirley starred in the year before. But the screenplay spends a good deal of time with the gangsters who are the cause of Sybil's troubles, and there is a very real sense of Depression-era desperation. Director Michael Curtiz makes all this very vivid, framing and lighting the shots to give this urban melodrama a hard edge. Robert Armstrong gives an excellent performance as one of the con men who takes Sybil in. This film may be a little too intense for Shirley Temple fans, but it's a strong melodrama with a solid cast.