The Big Break
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Joseph Strick
James Lipton
Gaby Rodgers
Doug Taylor
Ellie Pine
Leona Powers
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Marty Ross, a stock clerk in New York's garment district, and his co-worker Georgie spend a weekend vacation at a resort in the Ramapos, where Marty meets Helen, a stenographer from New York. Eager to impress her, Marty lies that he is a graduate of Yale, holds an important job and has grandiose career plans. When Marty attempts to kiss her, Helen tells him that she is engaged to be married, and that she thinks he is a phony. Later, after Marty confesses that he lied and went directly to work after high school, Helen forgives him. During a picnic, they talk about their future plans and Helen begins to fall in love with him. Back in New York, Marty escorts Helen to her apartment, and after they kiss, she tells him that she will break her engagement. Marty then returns to the humble apartment where he lives with his parents and younger sister Francie. Since his business went bankrupt, Marty's father has been working as a night watchman. Marty's mother is ill and would like to be examined by Dr. Webber who, as an intern, helped her when she gave birth to Marty in a charity ward, but now has an expensive practice on Park Avenue. Marty promises his family that he will improve their situation. Later, Helen tells Marty that her family wants her to stay with her steady, unimaginative fiancé. Nevertheless, she assures Marty that she wants to continue with their plan to marry in two months. However, after an efficiency idea proposed by Marty backfires, Marty is fired from his job. He then seeks employment in managerial positions but has no qualifications or experience. Marty ends up trying to sell various products as a door-to-door salesman, but fails miserably. A month away from their wedding day, Helen tells Marty that her mother has relented and agreed to let them move in with her, but Marty feels that if he can get just one good break, he can help everyone. In a pool hall, Marty becomes involved in a dice game with Bosco, a hustler, and although Marty initially wins, he ends up owing Bosco seventy dollars, which he has to pay that evening. Meanwhile, having already postponed their wedding, Helen is becoming disillusioned with Marty and admits that she has been seeing her former fiancé. After Helen tells Marty that he is a dreamer, waiting for a break that will never happen, he accuses her of being just like all the others girls who are looking for a man with a steady job. She agrees that she is and then says that perhaps getting rid of her will result in the opportunity he is looking for. After they break up, Marty wanders around the city alone, but is spotted by Bosco's thugs who chase and catch him. However, Georgie persuades Bosco to give Marty another chance with the dice to clear his debt. This time, Marty wins, and pays off Bosco. Marty then returns home with almost $100 dollars, only to find that his mother has been hospitalized and needs an operation. She will be treated as a charity case unless Marty and his father can hire Dr. Webber, whose fee is $1,500. Unable to talk with Webber on the phone, Marty goes to the hospital, where he poses as a successful importer-exporter and attempts to persuade the male admitting clerk to give his mother a better room and to summon Webber. The clerk refuses until Marty physically threatens him, and then instructs a nurse to phone Webber. Instead, she summons the police and Marty is arrested. Later, when he is released, he finds Helen waiting for him with the news that his mother is probably going to recover. After Helen tries to persuade him that things will work out, Marty tells her that he can only offer her a lot of trouble. However, this truthful statement convinces Helen that she wants to begin again and they leave the police station hand-in-hand to face an uncertain future together.
Director
Joseph Strick
Cast
James Lipton
Gaby Rodgers
Doug Taylor
Ellie Pine
Leona Powers
David Thomas
Art Anderson
Jerry Ansbacher
Heywood Hale Broun
Perry Bruskin
Lewis Charles
Margaret Fury
Lou Gilbert
Martin Green
Len Lesser
Michael Lewin
Cathy Parsons
John Pelletti
Gordon Peters
Hester Sondergaard
William Meigs
P. J. Sidney
Crew
Ruth Hughes Aarons
Henry Brant
Henry Freeman
Lee Gold
Richard Gramaglia
Robert Gurney Jr.
Albert Hague
Arthur Kornfeld
Carl Lerner
Herbert Margolis
Frank Mayer
William J. Miller
William Nallan
Werner Schott
Joseph Strick
George Vales
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
There is a slight difference in the cast order between the opening credits and the closing cast list. A New York Times article of October 15, 1950 reported that The Big Break was about to begin production at Camp Fieldstone in Monroe, NY and in New York City. The report indicated that the film would be photographed by Boris Kaufman over a period of a month, on a budget of "under $100,000," and that distribution arrangements would be made after completion of production. Documents in the film's file in the MPAA/PCA Collection file at the AMPAS Library confirm the film's start date and give January 22, 1951 as the date of issue of the PCA seal. The extent of Kaufman's contribution to the completed picture, if any, has not been confirmed. Hollywood Reporter news item of September 2, 1952 stated that Madison Pictures of New York had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film.
The Big Break marked the feature film debut of actor James Lipton. From 1952 to the early 1960s, Lipton was one of the stars of the daytime television soap opera The Guiding Light, and in 1994 become the often-satirized host of the popular, long-running Bravo cable television interview program Inside the Actors Studio.
