Bogart's The Big Shot
I have always liked the Australian daybill of The Big Shot ( 1942), but I just love this newspaper advertisement taken from a 1946 Australian newspaper. Note the elevation of Susan Peters name on the advertisement compared to the original release daybill. The Australian release appears to have been delayed until 1945 in Australia, when Susan Peters was then a bigger drawcard, or so the distributor thought. Interestingly the newspaper advertisement was shortened to just Big Shot, but most likely due to space restrictions..
0
Get In Touch
Comments
Marchant appeared to have printed full colour daybills for Warner Bros. up to 1943, e.g. Action In The North Atlantic, then followed by some WB duotones, such as Background To Danger. All newspaper advertising I have located is showing that the release in Australia of occurred in 1945.
My theory, without proof, for the delayed release in Australia, is that Warner Bros. didn't know how to promote this old fashioned B grade gangster film, made in between The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, which were big hits for Bogart. Looking at IMDB release dates for the Big Shot, on a whole the film had a delayed release throughout the world. It is likely the Marchant poster was printed in 1942 or 1943 when imported, but kept and put aside until the film was finally released in 1945. It was a common practice for films in the 1940's and into the 1950's for some films to have to wait up to two to sometimes three years to obtain a release in Australia.