Füge eine Handlung in deiner Sprache hinzuIn order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder... Alles lesenIn order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.In order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.
- Lt. Richard Webb
- (as Henry Morgan)
- Minor Role
- (Nicht genannt)
- Office Worker at Meeting
- (Nicht genannt)
- Officer Hogan
- (Nicht genannt)
- Tip
- (Nicht genannt)
- Canon
- (Nicht genannt)
- Employee at Meeting
- (Nicht genannt)
- Minor Role
- (Nicht genannt)
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The script is excellent. Dialogue supports characterization so that we 'know' all of these people. I liked Lynn. He's a decent man, one who on the spur of the moment makes the wrong choice. His mistake in judgment ensnares him in a tightening web of trouble. I liked Scott, who exemplifies the perfect mate. I liked Morgan, who always gets his man, but who makes sure that he gets the right one. The ending is a surprise, though once revealed, seems obvious. I liked the director's touch at the finish of having Morgan's cane disarm the murderer just in the nick of time. In fact, I liked everything about this little B film.
Anyway, it was a good idea because the film was used in flashbacks. The returning stars were Martha Scott, Jeffrey Lynn (who had long ago left show business and made a fortune in real estate) and Harry Morgan.
In the film Strange Bargain, Jeffrey Lynn plays Sam Wilson, an assistant bookkeeper at a company that is going under. He and his wife, Georgia (Scott) are having trouble making ends meet. With the encouragement of his wife, Sam goes in to ask for a raise and learns then that he's fired. Later on, as he's leaving, his boss, Mr. Jarvis (Richard Gaines) asks him to have a drink.
Jarvis admits that he's gone through the $500,000 his father left him (the equivalent of about 4 million today), and he is basically broke. He plans on killing himself and making it look like murder so his wife (Katherine Emery) can collect his $250,000 insurance policy; with double indemnity, that makes $500,000. He's going to set it up as a robbery. He will call Sam and give him a signal, and he wants Sam to come to his home then and remove the gun and dump it in the river. For that, he'll leave Sam $10,000 in the open safe.
Sam refuses to help him and attempts to talk Jarvis out of it, but he won't be swayed. Sam still refuses to help.
However, Jarvis calls him and gives the signal. Sam pleads with him to wait until he can get there and talk to him, but he's too late. He removes the gun and the money.
The police (Harry Morgan and Walter Sande) start an investigation and hone in on Jarvis' partner, Timothy Hearne (Henry O'Neill). Sam insists that Hearne couldn't have done it, but he's afraid that the man will be arrested.
This is a pretty good film. Lynn's career never recovered after World War II - he was a pleasant enough actor, and still made occasional TV appearances even after he left. Katherine Emery always reminds me of Mercedes McCambridge.
Watch it with the Murder She Wrote episode which you can stream.
The title bargain is his boss's asking him to help him make a suicide look like murder so that he (the boss) can leave insurance money for his family.
Hey! This doesn't figure in the softball and charity meetings of this town! Nor does Lynn's having, before this, been laid off by the boss.
Katherine Emory is excellent as the not so very grieving widow. Harry Morgan is just fine as a police detective who walks leaning on a cane. And Martha Scott is superb as Mrs. Jeffrey Lynn: She's most famous for her touching portrayal of Emily in "Our Town." but she had fa greater depth, as shown most notably in her magnificent performance in "So Well Remembered" a couple years before this little charmer came out.
Ah, for the days when local television showed low budget movies like this to fill up time. Now we have to wait fore them to appear out of nowhere on Turnwer Classics or be programmed at places like the Film Forum here in New Yiork. After all: What self-respecting person what want to waste a plasma TV on a black and white movie?!
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesAccording to contemporary articles in Los Angeles newspapers, Pat O'Brien and Robert Young were considered for the lead in this picture at various times during pre-production.
- PatzerWhen Sam pulls into the circular driveway of his boss's home, he pulls completely past the house. When the camera cuts to him getting out of his car, the car is parked very close to the front door of the house. The same shot of the car pulling far around the driveway is used again when he drives over to see Mrs. Jarvis; again, the shot of him getting out of the car puts him very close to the house's front door.
- Zitate
Sam Wilson: Darling, I made a terrible mistake. But I'll never make another one.
Georgia Wilson: Oh, yes, you will. You'll make lots of them. Not like this, of course. But you're a man, and men are always making mistakes. Even -- even women make them sometimes.
- VerbindungenEdited into Mord ist ihr Hobby: The Days Dwindle Down (1987)
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsland
- Sprache
- Auch bekannt als
- Extraño convenio
- Drehorte
- Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, Kalifornien, USA(Where Sam Wilson disposed of the gun that Malcolm Jarvis used to kill himself)
- Produktionsfirma
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
- Laufzeit
- 1 Std. 8 Min.(68 min)
- Farbe
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.37 : 1