Ransom Money

Looks suspiciously like an unfinished film, its lauded name-star Broderick Crawford essentially disappears from the script before the end, and a vaguely-related conclusion has been grafted thereupon with producer Grenade Curran inserted in the Las Vega$ scenes to provide an ending.

The film itself is paper-thin on plot, outlining the unsuccessful attempts of the local detectives (Jump and Cain) to locate an abducted boy (Whipple), taken from the Grand Canyon while his mother (Romen) is distracted. The abductor extorts the wealthy widow for a million $$ to secure the boy's release, but there are complications with the delivery of the ransom, and the boy's safe release. Crawford appears as an FBI adviser flown in as a specialist, though his value add is pretty non-existent.

Dubious is the main word I use to describe this farce - recycled scene fillers and staging coupled with tedious dialogue exchanges fails to mask the reality that this is just a concept without a developed (or at least properly executed) plan. The first 75 minutes are laborious, and the last ten are just nonsensical rubbish. Some abominable acting (Stuart - what is he doing?) further compounds the mess, which in spite of committed performances from Romen and Jump, never rises above amateur rank.

Rich widow Rachel Roman and her son are visiting the Grand Canyon. Her son is kidnapped by someone who can write notes that disappear, give her orders through her car radio, and seems to be easily able to anticipate what's going on, even after FBI agent Broderick Crawford, who specializes in kidnapping, shows up.

It's a cast and crew whose names I don't recognize, save for Gordon Jump. Nonetheless, it proceeds at a decent pace with interesting situation, a decent twist, and some real questions about if and how they're going to capture the kidnapper. Then, in the last thirty minutes, the production goes wonky. The score by Hank Levine had been sounding like a rip-off of Glen Campbell; now, with the situation getting worse, it turns perky. Things continue to go weird when star Crawford is suddenly killed in a manner that has no effect on the movie. I suspect this was one of those deals in which they had hired him for, say two weeks of shooting, and they still had some key scenes to shoot when he left. In sum, it's about three-quarters of a decent movie and one quarter that just turns weirdly wrong.

I purchased this film for $1.00. It was a double feature DVD with a 1967 Italian made war film called Desert Commando's. Ransom Money (1970) is the first film on the disc. The acting is absolutely terrible. The film has to do with the kidnap and ransom of a rich woman's son. Broderick Crawford plays the lead detective, and he does the best job that he possible can do with this limited material. This film looks like an old made for TV movie, not something that would be released theatrically. There are some unintentional laughs in this film, and the limited budget shows. The Vegas photography is quite good, sort of a history piece, showing Vegas of the 70's. I give this film a 3 out of 10. See this film if you are only interested in cheesy cheap unintentionally funny films.

Recently discovered a nearly unknown gem that my fellow Ed Wood aficionados will appreciate. There's a 1970 made-for-TV flick starring Broderick Crawford called "Ransom Money" that is just as hilariously inept as anything the Woodster put out. HEAR one of the cheesiest theme songs in motion picture history! SEE the inexplicable moves the characters make! PONDER the ridiculous dialogue! LISTEN as inappropriately bouncy music accompanies scenes of supposed suspense! WATCH the awesome miscasting of Gordon Jump (Arthur Carlson of "WKRP in Cincinnati, and more recently a lonely Maytag repairman) as a tough homicide detective! Ya gotta love it!

"Ransom Money" is a public domain flick. Nobody has the copyright on it, apparently. You can get it for $3 on VHS on Amazon, but your best buy would be a 20-pack for under $10 at http://www.amazon.com/Suspense-20-Movie-Pack-Set/dp/B0007Z0OBI that also features some REALLY good suspense classics like "Detour," "He Walked By Night," "Scarlet Street," "The Stranger," and others, even including Wood's own cops 'n' robbers classic "Jail Bait." You can get a similar 50-movie pack for twice the price that apparently does not include "Ransom Money," so it's your call.

This seems to be the producer's only effort at anything. He also played the kidnapper. A vanity project. First giveaway to a cheaply-made movie is the sound is bad. Like the voices were recorded in a studio, not at the locations. The lead actress was awful. Her make-up was great, though. Broderick Crawford and Gordon Jump were the only professionals in the whole shebang. Crawford must have become disgusted and bailed early, so they killed his character off- screen. I suspect that was stock footage of Las Vegas. How about all those indoor shots in crummy motels? A device they might have learned from porn movies. This would be a good demonstration for film students of what not to do.