The Big Night (1951) on Netflix
On his seventeenth birthday, George LaMain sees sports columnist Al Judge beat his father Andy in the bar. George takes Andy's gun and houndstooth jacket and goes out into the night.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.3/101,333 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Plot summary
George LaMain is seventeen and shy, and classmates bully him near his home. His father Andy, who has watched the bullying, brings out a cake for the birthday and George blows out the candles. Father and son mean to go to a boxing match that night, and George asks why Frances, Andy's girlfriend of long standing, will not be with them; nobody answers him. In the bar, the sports columnist Al Judge arrives with two heavies and beats Andy in front of the drinkers while the barman, Flanagan, holds George back. George cannot see why his father stripped to the waist and knelt before Judge without resisting. Flanagan puts the beaten Andy to bed, and while closing up, George comes on a gun in the till. He takes it, along with Andy's houndstooth jacket and fedora, and walks out.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Big Night (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Hugo Butler and Ring Lardner Jr. contributed to the screenplay of The Big Night, but both were admitted communists; after Lardner's conviction for contempt of Congress, they went uncredited when the film was first released.
