A British production, Big Fella finds Paul Robeson again working the docks, this time in Marseilles, France. While "lazin'" with his inter-racial coworkers, the police ask Joe (played by Robeson) to help probe the dockside gangs. They hope to find a child kidnapped from a docked passenger liner. After the rich parents offer a 50,000 franc reward, Joe's dock associates eagerly join the search. However, we eventually discover that the child wasn't kidnapped: he ran away to escape the stifling environment of his English upper-crust life and took refuge with a dockside gang of children. Joe finds the missing child and attempts to return him to his parents, but the child resists and tells Joe to leave him alone. If Joe persists, he will tell the police that Joe and his friends actually kidnapped him. Joe relents and puts the child up at his girlfriend's flat. She and Joe quickly become surrogate foster parents for the child. Spike, another dockworker, spots the child in Joe's company and quickly turns him over to the police, collecting the reward. While the child tries to win the reward for Joe, his parents plan to leave on a passenger ship--leaving Joe behind with no money. The child falls into a depression, so the parents entice Joe to come back to England with them and remain with the child, much to the chagrin of Joe's girlfriend. However, Joe realizes his place is on the docks and with his girlfriend, so he remains in Marseilles, swapping Spike (in black face no less) onto the ship.