Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

Don't Believe the Hype

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.

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.

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.

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.