Masterful Movie

Disapointment

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

A crew of phony spiritualist scammers hooks a big bucks sucker, but things get complicated when an undercover reporter joins the crew.It's hard to do a spiritualist scam movie without getting hokey, especially with the lesser technology of the 30's. Nope, no digital wonders here, just costumed characters, back- projection screens, and fateful voices. Do the suckers fall for the phony theatre. Of course, they do, and for big money, too. I guess the pigeon here is smart enough to be a big-time investor, but dumb enough to be taken in by dime-store theatrics. Anyway, if you can get past the stumbling narrative and the awkward staging, there are a few compensations. Actress Busch conveys a sassy sense of reality that may not fit with the rest, but lends needed spark to the flat direction (two directors, which probably didn't help). Looks like she should be trading barbs with other street-smart types like Joan Blondell. Auer's got the face of a supernatural type, but rather surprisingly, doesn't play it up, thus weakening a pervasive sense of evil. And, I may be alone, but actor McCarthy could pass for an earlier edition of Paul Newman, at least in some shots. Too bad he died so young. And those two hulking black door guards amount to a note of visual inspiration, even if their dialog amounts to Amos and Andy.Overall, the movie's not bad enough for camp. In fact, it might even suffice for old movie junkies, like myself.

Sucker Money is a well directed, decently written film. Its also pretty respectably acted as well. A bonus is the fact not many films have been made about phony mediums so that makes it somewhat unique. I was kinda turned off by the lipstick and eyeshadow that leading man Earl McCarthy wore until I realized that it was all part of his undercover "job"...portraying a dead soldier. Amazingly, McCarthy dropped dead of a heart attack shortly after making this movie...despite the fact he was in his mid twenties and should have been in great shape, having been a professional dancer just a couple years before. Hmmmm, something fishy about all that in my opinion. People who aren't fascinated by these old black and white films will probably find nothing here. Others, like me will find that it holds their interest throughout. This would have been a wonderful vehicle for Bela Lugosi although the fellow who portrayed the swami was very good in creepy roles. I enjoyed it! It would be cool if someone investigated what really happened to young McCarthy.

I love museums and museum pieces. This is not a good movie but it gives an insight into a time that no longer exists - old-fashioned furniture, clothes and habits that went out of style way before many of us were born.That would be the only reason to see this picture.You can also see Mischa Auer before he became a pop-eyed relief comic in many musicals of the 30's and 40's, as well as some lesser-known actors who are long-gone.The plot line is negligible and far-fetched but it's fascinating to ponder how popular psychics were in the '30s. Also nice to see the 'ever-popular Mae Busch', as Jackie Gleason used to put it on his show. Evidently a pretty good actress who lacked timeless beauty.In short, Sucker Money is a curiosity not recommended except as a trip to the museum.

I wouldn't have bet a plug nickel that "Sucker Money" would wind up as entertaining and interesting as it turned out to be. It had the look and feel of those 1930's era 'educational' films that purported to warn the viewer about the dangers of illicit drugs, alcohol or sex, but in this case the film was an attempt at exposing the psychic racket. The story actually had decent continuity, even if some of the players presented were extremely over the top, starting with the phony Swami (Mischa Auer), and including characters like Princess Karami (Mona Lisa, why not use her real name?), and the two black bodyguards dressed in their own set of Indian Hindu garb. Seeing them, I knew it was only a matter of time before the flick fell into racial stereotype, and they're shown throwing dice in a subsequent scene, as reporter Jimmy Reeves (Earl McCarthy) notes to the one rolling a winner - "Yo' sho' is lucky, Big Boy"! The thing is, while watching, I got a sense that old Swami was a truly evil guy, and it wouldn't take much for him to dispose of anyone who got in the way of his making a really big score. Which got kind of wasted when he discovered Reeves' real identity as a newspaper reporter, and then just let him roam around fairly freely within the confines of the operation. You would think that Jimmy would be a quick goner, and the Swami and his crowd could have pulled off the twenty thousand dollar heist of old Walton without any further trouble. It also seemed pretty convenient that the law showed up in time to make the save, but this was over seventy years ago, and there wasn't a whole lot of time and effort that went into making a story believable if put under a microscope. Which is OK if it passes the entertainment test, and I think this was a good try if one's not too critical.I really have to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for putting out a package that makes pictures like this available to old time film junkies like myself; without them one would never even know that they existed. This one was part of a two hundred fifty movie set on sixty double sided DVD's as party of their Mystery Collection. The great thing is, by the time you get around to viewing all the movies in the set, you wind up forgetting what the first ones you saw were all about, and you can go ahead and do it all over again!