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5.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Big Brain remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like old-school grifter stories where everyone wears a sharp suit and talks way faster than humanly possible, you'll probably have a good time with The Big Brain. If you need your crime dramas to be morally heavy or tightly plotted, you're going to find this one pretty hollow.
It’s a bit of a relic, but it moves. It’s got that jittery, pre-code energy that doesn't care much about long-term consequences.
George E. Stone is honestly the best part of this whole thing. He plays Max Werner with this frantic, twitchy desperation that makes you actually believe he'd start out as a backroom bookie. Watching him navigate from a tiny barbershop to international finance is weirdly hypnotic.
He's a total creep, but he's a busy creep. The transition between his jobs is basically: he is there, then he is suddenly richer, then he is in London.
There's this moment in the middle where the film just stops bothering to explain how he’s pulling off these stock scams. It just assumes you'll nod along because the suits look expensive. Honestly? I did. The pacing is so aggressive you don't really have time to ask, "Wait, how did he get that money?"
Moving the action to England feels like a weird shift in tone. It’s like the movie realized it needed to be more "international" to feel important. The sets get a little grander, but the scamming stays just as petty. It’s just petty crime with a better view.
There's a scene involving a newspaper expose that feels like it was written on a napkin five minutes before shooting. It just happens. The dominoes fall because the script needs them to, not because the characters did anything particularly smart. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in The Adorable Cheat, though this one has way more cigar smoke.
The ending is a total trap, obviously. You know it's coming from the first five minutes. It doesn't try to be clever with the setup, which I sort of respect. It just lands where it has to land.
Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it the kind of movie you'd watch on a rainy Tuesday while eating cold leftovers? Absolutely. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It just says its piece and gets out of the way. 👔📈
IMDb —
1930
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