Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

gkeith_1 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.

Ron Oliver 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.

ancient-andean 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.

Ken Peters (wireshock) 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.)