Money Madness | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sam Newfield |
Screenplay by | Al Martin |
Story by | Al Martin |
Produced by | Sigmund Neufeld |
Starring | Hugh Beaumont Frances Rafferty |
Cinematography | Jack Greenhalgh |
Edited by | Holbrook N. Todd |
Music by | Leo Erdody |
Production company | Sigmund Neufeld Productions |
Distributed by | Film Classics |
Release date |
|
Running time | 73 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Money Madness is a 1948 film noir mystery film directed by Sam Newfield starring Hugh Beaumont and Frances Rafferty. [1]
Steve Clark (Hugh Beaumont) is on a Los Angeles-bound bus and gets off in a small town en route. In his suitcase he has been carrying loot from a bank robbery; he stashes it in a safety deposit box. He becomes a taxi driver, which leads him to a chance encounter with Julie Saunders (Frances Rafferty), a local woman in her 20s. Julie lives with an elderly, bitter aunt who makes her life miserable. Clark, with his charm and original outlook on life, instantly becomes a ray of sunlight for her, and they quickly marry.
However, Clark soon admits to her that the marriage is part of a plan he has crafted, to help him launder his ill-gotten cash—but it also involves murder and will make Julie an accessory to it, against her will.
Film critic Dennis Schwartz, while giving the film a mixed review, liked the feature, writing, "A low-grade film noir that has its chilling moments. It opens with Julie Saunders (Frances Rafferty) sentenced to a prison term of ten years for being an accomplice to murder. A flashback is used to show how a sweet girl like Julie could have gotten into such deep trouble ... Beaumont went on to be Ward Cleaver in television's Leave It to Beaver , but here he's great to watch as a sleazeball and sicko killer. It's film where it takes a suspension of belief to get through all the problems built into the implausible plot, but nevertheless the film has a certain insanity kicking in that somehow works to give it an edge." [2]
Ben Winkler served as the sound engineer for the film. [3]
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