Sucker Money (1933)

The Amazing Mr. X (1948) - watch that one for a fairly good film on the subject of a scamming swami it's in the same vein of Sucker Money. The Amazing Mr. X (1948) really is far superior to Sucker Money - it's not as cheesy and a much darker film. Sucker Money isn't a great script, it's bad really, but it's a fun film. Lots of hogwash, bologna and cheese - lots and lots of cheese. I enjoyed the film to a degree because I take it all in fun. It's just a film to watch if you want to see a swami on film in a mildly entertaining bad story. I really don't recommend Sucker Money to most people - but it is a film for people who are interested in occult topics and scams as well as enjoys the older films. 5/10

It's obvious from the get-go that this Z-grade programmer is formula from start to finish, standard stuff that never gives any surprises even if it has a few bright ideas along the way. You've got all the cardboard cut-out characters, from the con-artist fleecing the rich, the good-hearted tough dame, the wise-cracking stage manager, the dumb businessman, the fragile heroine and the handsome hero. It is also obvious that the good guys will prevail, the bad guys will pay and there will be a few innocent victims along the way. The usually over-the-top Mischa Auer takes it back a few notches to be subtle as he underplays his crooked swami (how I love ya, how I love ya...) to the point of actually making him boring. It is also obvious that when the hard-as-nails tough broad (the one with the heart of gold and liver of gin) puts on an old lady wig, she will instantly convince the heroine that she's her granny and another actor amongst the troop is her dear old dad. All this to get the rich people to invest in phony stocks (at the height of the depression, no less...) and this results in a botched kidnapping and furious chase sequence at the end. All this would be palatable if the quality of the camera work and sound wasn't so shoddy and the acting so melodramatically lame. This was done so much better years later with the campy "You'll Find Out" where Bela Lugosi had a lot of interesting gadgets as well as Karloff and Lorre and the music of Kay Kyser to basically do the same plot, but with more quality.

With a bunch of gullible types like this film presents, we could all make a fortune off them. They even fall for things like a back projection of film, thinking it has some magical quality. The bad guys are good at bilking unsuspecting bank presidents and rich widows by making contact with loved ones. This sounds interesting until you see it. It has that old cliché of getting rid of all your problems except the one that is the biggest danger. Why not shoot the reporter who is on to your whole scheme when you are bumping off everyone else? I'm sure mysticism would have appealed to the viewers of the time, but this is just as dull as can be. The only people I cared about were the black guards who were obviously only in it for the cash. They at least had personalities, though they had all the racial stereotypes of the era.

It's rather unbelievable that anyone would fall for this spiritualist stuff. Here the spiritualist world is simply a movie shown on a regular movie screen, which isn't very other worldly. There are a number of interesting 1930s characters in the movie though, which made it pretty enjoyable to me. It's interesting to contrast their fake "spiritualism" work day personalities with their actual everyday personalities. The 2 black dudes spend their working day being zombie like guards, but then enjoy tossing dice after work. I'd enjoy hanging out with them more than anybody else in the movie.Anyway I always enjoy Misha Auer, who never gets a starring role, as far as I know, except in this movie. I also enjoyed seeing Mona Lisa, in her only talking role. I always wondered what she did after posing for that painting :-)