Sat 6 Jun 2020
MONEY MADNESS. Film Classics, 1948. Hugh Beaumont, Frances Rafferty, Harlan Warde, Cecil Weston. Screenwriter: Al Martin. Director: Sam Newfield (as Peter Stewart).
There is a small but elite set of noir films that begin with a man getting off a bus (or train) with only a suitcase. The town is usually in warmer climes, and all he owns is likely to be in the suitcase, but that’s not a absolute requirement. It doesn’t take him long to find a girl, perhaps working in a small diner, night club or roadhouse on the outskirts of town.
In this case, however, before he meets the girl, he puts most of the contents of the suitcase into a bank safety deposit box: $200,000 in cash. We the viewer are suspicious immediately, but not the girl, who is as tired of slinging hash as she is of living with a crabby old aunt. So weary of life as she is living it as to be swept off her feet and be married only two days later.
Which is when the man (Hugh Beaumont) lets the girl (Frances Rafferty) what he has in mind to do with the aunt, and how he plans to launder the money, although I am not sure that’s a word that was in common use in 1948.
As the naive young woman, Frances Rafferty is perhaps a little too naive and too willing to go along with the other’s plan, but Hugh Beaumont as the man with the plan is a revelation as someone who can go in only a split second from a sweet-talking lover to a tough and out-and-out cad who won’t take no for an answer, and in no uncertain terms, lets his new bride know it.
It was a different era when men could dominate women this way, or is it? The story is taut and well-structured with only one caveat, and the minimal amount of money that was able to be spent on production fits in perfectly with the dinginess of life of the less than middle class in 1948.
The caveat? It’s too late now, but I’ve have told the producers of the film to drop the opening scene altogether. It doesn’t fit, no way no how. They’d have been far better off starting with man getting off the bus, which is where the movie begins anyway. Watch the film for yourself and see if you don’t agree.
June 6th, 2020 at 8:26 pm
Beaumont had a decent career as a low budget leading man, and second string in better films before he turned them in for an armchair and the Beav.
June 6th, 2020 at 10:12 pm
Right. He also played Michael Shayne in a few movies in the 40s. I haven’t dared watch them. Maybe they’re OK.
Definitely not OK are the movies that he played PI Denny O’Brien in:
Danger Zone
Roaring City
Pier 23
But no matter how good an actor you are, if the story stinks, it’s hard to rise above it.
There is a connection between the O’Brien character and old time radio’s Pat Novak and Johnny Madero, which is why I decided to start watching one of them tonight. Awful, to put it mildly. So far, Google hasn’t helped me too much with any definitive details. I’ll keep looking.
June 6th, 2020 at 10:26 pm
If Kevin Burton Smith hasn’t made the connection, I don’t know who might:
Here’s the first paragraph of O’Brien’s page on the Thrilling Detective website:
“All things considered, easy-going DENNIS O’BRIEN (played by Hugh Beaumont) would probably rather be renting out boats from his shop on San Francisco’s Pier 23 at fifty bucks a pop. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite keep the boats afloat, so he moonlights as a “troubleshooter” to make ends meet in three episodic B-flicks from 1951. The down side is that, as a makeshift private eye, he has a shocking propensity for getting knocked unconscious and being framed for murder; variations on that theme being repeated Danger Zone, Roaring City and Pier 23.”
https://www.thrillingdetective.com/more_eyes/dennis_obrien.html
But no mention of either Pat Novak or Johnny Madero.
June 6th, 2020 at 10:32 pm
I don’t know if this link will work, and I can’t copy what I found here, but yes, the films consisted of taking six episodes of a 30 minute would be TV series, and combining them into three 60 minute movies. Each episode was based on a script from the radio series.
https://books.google.com/books?id=14iXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT48&lpg=PT48&dq=Herbert+Margolis+and+Louis+Morheim+pat+novak&source=bl&ots=zkMuXCZD-Y&sig=ACfU3U3YeWDGpSpc4sNd99Ds_vemMii7Kg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwie7Ozz4O7pAhVAlXIEHXwLDIAQ6AEwC3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Herbert%20Margolis%20and%20Louis%20Morheim%20pat%20novak&f=false
June 6th, 2020 at 11:46 pm
Steve, I found the links fascinating, but only took a pair of unimportant items with me; Phyllis Coates is labeled as the best Lois Lane ever, and I agree. The other, about accuracy. Richard Travis is called Richard Travers. Unimportant unless you care. I do.
As far as producing a series and turning unsold episodes into a feature, Walter Doniger after his success, with Duffy of San Quentin, manufactured several half hours shows with Paul Kelly recreating his part, and when they did not sell, strung them together as The Steel Cage. Not good, but not terrible either. There was a third film,
The Steel Jungle, but I believe it to be an afterthought.
About Duffy being a success. They sold it to Warner Brothers and opened it first run, not at Radio City, but…then later it went out top of the bill with Crime Wave, an even less expensive film, but far superior.
June 7th, 2020 at 12:09 pm
Fascinating stuff, Barry. No idea is ever used only once, I guess, but to the O’Brien films’ credit, they did it first.
I saw the Travis/Travers mixup, too. Travis was in a lot of B-movies in the 40s into the 50s. I can’t think of a standout role, but every time I’ve seen him, he did an excellent job.
June 7th, 2020 at 8:19 pm
The Travis movie that sticks in my mind has him as a bus driver battling Nazi saboteurs with help from Willie Best, who in a rarity for the time, actually gets to punch a white guy — albeit a Nazi.
June 7th, 2020 at 9:23 pm
That has to be BUSSES ROAR from 1942. Found it on IMDb. Now to find a copy to watch!
June 7th, 2020 at 9:26 pm
June 11th, 2020 at 11:51 am
You can rest easier now, Steve. Pat Novak and Johnny Madero are now both mentioned on the freshly updated and transferred Dennis O’Brien page over at https://thrillingdetective.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/dennis-obrien/
I’ve noted the coincidences, but I’m still digging, and finding even more coincidences… ah, the interconnectedness of all things.
June 11th, 2020 at 12:15 pm
The films were apparently adapted from six half-hour radio scripts for the Pat Novak for Hire radio show by Herbert H. Margolis and Lou Morheim. Which explains the Novak/Modero/O’Brien Continuum.
Still no clue who wrote the radio shows, but the game’s afoot.
June 11th, 2020 at 12:37 pm
I can see why the work on your website is never done!