mark.waltz 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.

kidboots Again Phyllis Barrington had the female lead in this follow up to "Sinister Hands" but once again she was completely overshadowed, this time by veteran Mae Busch playing an alcoholic singer employed by the sinister Swami in his fake fortune telling racket. Mischa Auer impressed as the mysterious Swami Yomurda in "Sinister Hands" the year before so he was back again in "Sucker Money". In this movie his sinisterness is exposed as downright evil - all owing to the co-director Dorothy Reid. She had been married to Wallace Reid and his death, from narcotics, led her on a one woman crusade to expose the menace of drugs through films. After ten years of films like "Human Wreckage" and "The Red Kimona" she turned to another social evil that was reaching plague proportions in Hollywood - the phoney spiritualism racket!!Jimmy Reeves, reporter (Earl McCarty, a younger dead ringer for Jack Mulhall, star of "Sinister Hands", what happened, wasn't he available??), is ordered by his boss to apply for a job in which actors are wanted - he hopes Jimmy will be able to write an expose on crooked psychics. While there he meets Claire (Phyllis Barrington) whose father is being persuaded to invest in a phoney oil field by another of the Swami's actors. Veteran Mae Busch steals the movie with her portrayal of "Beautiful", an alcoholic ex singer who jumps at the chance of helping Jimmy expose these crooks. Of course Claire recognises Jimmy and feels he is part of the con but when he explains things he is overheard and sets in motion the thrilling climax where Claire is kidnapped and hypnotized and "Beautiful" saves the day by escaping to send an SOS to Jimmy's paper.The theme of fake spiritualism has been shown to better advantage in any film you could name - "Darkened Rooms" (1929), "The Hole in the Wall" (1929), even the later "Bunco Squad" (1950) but Mae Busch makes this one seem better than it is by her professionalism.

GManfred 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.

Hitchcoc 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.