The Big Shakedown

Crime, Drama · 1934NOT RATED

Academy Award-winner Bette Davis stars as the bride of a pharmacist counterfeiting drugs who almost dies when she unknowingly receives an injection of one of his phony prescriptions in The Big Shakedown. Druggist Jimmy Morrell's (Charles Farrell) business is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy when racketeer Dutch Barnes (Ricardo Cortez) offers a proposal for Morrell to concoct and sell copies of brand name drugs. But when Morrell's pregnant bride, Norma (Davis), loses their baby and almost dies after receiving one of his ineffective drugs, Morrell becomes almost insane with rage. He wants out of the deal — and he wants Barnes dead. He's too late, though, to kill Barnes; by the time Morrell finds him, Barnes is already dead. Still, Barnes gets a measure of revenge as well as rid of the evidence against him by rolling Morrell's body into a vat of chemicals that completely dissolve the cadaver.

Starring

Orry-Kelly, Charles Farrell, Bette Davis, Sidney Hickox, Thomas Richards, Ricardo Cortez, Bernhard Kaun, Glenda Farrell, Rian James, Allen Jenkins

Director

John Francis Dillon