''The Big Night'' is a 1960 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Sidney Salkow Sidney Salkow (June 16, 1911 – October 18, 2000) was an American film director (more than 50 motion pictures), screenwriter, and television director. Salkow was educated at the City College of New York, Columbia University and Harvard Law Schoo ...

and written by Ric Hardman. The film stars

Randy Sparks Randy Sparks (born July 29, 1933, Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and founder of The New Christy Minstrels and The Back Porch Majority. Biography Sparks grew up in Oakland, California, and attended the Universit ...

Venetia Stevenson Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson (10 March 1938 – 26 September 2022) was an English actress. Early life Born in 1938 in London, England, as Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson, she was the daughter of film director Robert Stevenson and actress ...

Dick Foran John Nicholas "Dick" Foran (June 18, 1910 – August 10, 1979) was an American actor, known for his performances in Western musicals and for playing supporting roles in dramatic pictures. Early years Foran was born in Flemington, New Jer ...

, Jesse White,

Dick Contino Richard Joseph "Dick" Contino (January 17, 1930 – April 19, 2017) was an American accordionist and singer. Early life Contino was born in Fresno, California. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Contino, and he attended Fresno High School. H ...

and

Frank Ferguson Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish ...

. The film was released on February 17, 1960 by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

Police kill two fleeing criminals while a third escapes. A briefcase tossed from their car's window into a canal is recovered by a young man, Frankie, who discovers that it contains $209,000 in cash from a bank robbery. Frankie confides in his girlfriend Ellie, whose mother has expressed worry about her dating a young hoodlum. Ellie can't persuade Frankie to do the honest thing and return the money, which he hides. Carl Farrow, the remaining bank robber, begins trying to find out who has it, as does Wegg, a corrupt cop. Following the boy, Wegg tries to cut himself in on a deal with Farrow, who instead slugs him and leaves him dead in the canal. Frightened after finding the body, Frankie turns himself in to the police. Farrow comes gunning for him but Frankie survives, then hopes for leniency from the law.

Cast

as Frank *

as Ellie *

as Ed * Jesse White as Wegg *

as Carl Farrow *

as Dave *

Paul Langton Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

as Spencer * House Peters, Jr. as Robert Shaw * Robert Paget as Tony * Marc Cavell as Jerry * Kay E. Kuter as The Mailman *

Anna Lee Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith; 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was a British actress, labelled by studios "The British Bombshell". Early life Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith in Ightham, (pronounced 'Item'), Kent, th ...

as Mrs. Turner

Reception

In a brief contemporary review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', critic Eugene Archer wrote that the film consists of "Randy Sparks as a juvenile delinquent who finds a briefcase containing $200,000 in stolen banknotes and wastes more than seventy minutes of screen and audience time before turning it over to the police. Venetia Stevenson, Dick Foran and Anna Lee are inconspicuous in the cast."

References

External links

* 1960 films 1960s English-language films Paramount Pictures films American drama films 1960 drama films Films directed by Sidney Salkow Films scored by Richard LaSalle 1960s American films {{1960s-drama-film-stub