The Big Guy

Sharing a premise with The Man from London (1943) and Too Late for Tears (1949), Arthur Lubin’s The Big Guy narrates the moral and mortal ramifications of one man’s decision to keep the ill-gotten gains that figuratively fall in his lap. Despite the lighthearted tone of the opening scenes, the film turns dark, visually and narratively, once the young husband-to-be and repentant ex-con Jimmy Hutchins (Jackie Collins) is forced at gunpoint to participate in a robbery getaway. Victor McLaglen plays Bill Whitlock, an acting prison warden who comes into possession of the robbers’ loot and decides to keep it to build a better life with his wife Mary (Ona Munson), who’s initially reluctant but soon gives in. When Hutchins is convicted and sentenced to Death Row, Warden Whitlock knows not only that the boy is innocent, but that he possesses the only evidence that could set the boy free. Whitlock’s guilt manifests first in going soft on Hutchins in the pen and offering him a supportive shoulder (“I don’t want mercy,” Hutchins tells him, “I want justice”), but as the inmate’s execution nears, Whitlock’s mental torture accelerates (“You look like you just committed a murder,” Mary says one night), ultimately clashing with a prison escape attempt in a violent, dramatic conclusion. Edward Brophy shines as Dippy, the warden’s goofy sidekick who exposes his maniacal personality in the film’s final act. While available copies of the film are in pretty bad shape, we can still discern the occasional artistry of Bredell’s cinematography (note, for example, the slow pan and zoom toward Whitlock’s face in a doorway when the verdict is read) and Otterson’s set design (the prison lit from high windows, like the clerestory of a church, is a highlight). Given the time period, Cahn’s editing can be forgiven for adding false dynamism by speeding up chase scenes. The film was remade by Abner Bieberman as Behind the High Wall in 1956.