In 1933 America repealed the 18th Amendment thereby legalizing booze again. This was a win for many but a loss for the bootleggers. Dutch Barnes (Ricardo Cortez) was one of the losers. He wasn't able to use his strong arm tactics to get businesses to buy his booze when there were dozens of legitimate alcohol makers around. So he left bootlegging alcohol in order to bootleg other products like toothpaste, antiseptics, and even life saving drugs. How could a gangster do that? With the help of a scientist/druggist named Jimmy Morrell (Charles Farrell).
Jimmy knew how to reproduce a lot of the popular products on the market. He reluctantly reproduced them for Dutch even in the face of the protestations of his sweetheart Norma Nelson (Bette Davis).
I thought the plot was novel until they went too far with it. Dutch's counterfeit antiseptic actually bankrupted Odite, the company that made the antiseptic, which caused the inventor of it to commit suicide. It was a bit far-fetched and a bit pro-business to show a small-time counterfeiter bankrupting a large, multimillion dollar, publicly traded company.
Then, as if bankrupting a company wasn't extreme enough to stress how bad counterfeiting is, Dutch had Jimmy make a knock off version of a life saving drug called "digitalis." This was a whole new sphere of counterfeiting because hospitals aren't consumers, yet, somehow, Dutch got his fake digitalis into hospitals. This was especially bad because the fake digitalis was missing key components that made it essentially useless.
It gets deeper.
Jimmy's girlfriend turned wife, Norma (Bette Davis), needed an injection of digitalis to save her life during childbirth. Well, because the hospital had fake digitalis, it didn't work. Norma lived, but the baby died.
Now how is that for irony.
I think "The Big Shakedown" would've fared a lot better without the extreme examples of the harms of counterfeiting. They completely glossed over how a small-time hood was able to produce and push enough antiseptic to bankrupt a company. They also omitted how he was able to get his fake drugs into hospitals. If they just toned it down the movie would've been so much better.
I liked the cast. I don't know anything about the leading actor, Charles Farrell, but I like Bette Davis, Ricardo Cortez, and Glenda Farrell. Glenda Farrell played Dutch's girl Lily. She has the attitude and behaviorisms to play a gangster's girl. The cast helped a lot. They helped somewhat overcome the terrible plot devices.
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Jimmy knew how to reproduce a lot of the popular products on the market. He reluctantly reproduced them for Dutch even in the face of the protestations of his sweetheart Norma Nelson (Bette Davis).
I thought the plot was novel until they went too far with it. Dutch's counterfeit antiseptic actually bankrupted Odite, the company that made the antiseptic, which caused the inventor of it to commit suicide. It was a bit far-fetched and a bit pro-business to show a small-time counterfeiter bankrupting a large, multimillion dollar, publicly traded company.
Then, as if bankrupting a company wasn't extreme enough to stress how bad counterfeiting is, Dutch had Jimmy make a knock off version of a life saving drug called "digitalis." This was a whole new sphere of counterfeiting because hospitals aren't consumers, yet, somehow, Dutch got his fake digitalis into hospitals. This was especially bad because the fake digitalis was missing key components that made it essentially useless.
It gets deeper.
Jimmy's girlfriend turned wife, Norma (Bette Davis), needed an injection of digitalis to save her life during childbirth. Well, because the hospital had fake digitalis, it didn't work. Norma lived, but the baby died.
Now how is that for irony.
I think "The Big Shakedown" would've fared a lot better without the extreme examples of the harms of counterfeiting. They completely glossed over how a small-time hood was able to produce and push enough antiseptic to bankrupt a company. They also omitted how he was able to get his fake drugs into hospitals. If they just toned it down the movie would've been so much better.
I liked the cast. I don't know anything about the leading actor, Charles Farrell, but I like Bette Davis, Ricardo Cortez, and Glenda Farrell. Glenda Farrell played Dutch's girl Lily. She has the attitude and behaviorisms to play a gangster's girl. The cast helped a lot. They helped somewhat overcome the terrible plot devices.
Free on Odnoklassniki.