A chance to hear Robeson sing in this British film. (The same studio, Hammer-British Lion Productions, had previously made Song of Freedom with Robeson.) He plays an indolent Marseilles dockworker, Joe, who is befriended by a white orphan boy. Following him from saloon to saloon, the kid intimidates him out of some of his worse habits, and eventually a genuine affection grows into a sense of responsibility for the boy. Robeson received criticism in the black press for portraying a "lazy Negro" character, but he answered his critics with his understanding of the nature of Joe's regeneration. A typically convoluted plot has the boy pretending to be kidnapped, then really kidnapped. But it was the portrayal of the relationships between the stevedores, black and white, and the central relationship that made Big Fella a success with audiences everywhere.