Money and the Woman

Another nice little Warner Brothers film, this one from 1940. Has several familiar ingredients for a good film--missing money, suspicious bank tellers, guns, red herrings--the whole bag of tricks. Another fine performance by Jeffrey Lynn and ably supported by Brenda Marshall and a slew of familiar and favorite character actors and actresses--Lee Patrick, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Roger Pryor and Henry O'Neill. Don't miss this one, it is a pleasant way to pass an hour on a rainy day!!

Bank Vice-President Jeffrey Lynn (Bennett) is sent to a branch where there seems to be a star teller Roger Pryor (Charlie Patterson) who encourages customers to save. The Branch Manager John Litel (Jerry) invites Lynn to watch Pryor's technique with customers. Pryor is very annoying and seems to butt into each of his customer's lives, including extra-curricular activities in an "I'll come round and water your plants for you" kind of way. A very annoying man. He should be fired on the spot or told to act more professionally. Anyway, the numpties in charge reckon he is a good thing and plan to promote him to a managerial position. He doesn't want it, though. What is the reason for this and what are the women up to?

It's an OK programmer. Nothing too interesting. You watch it, suspect the wrong people, then figure things out, and then it ends. If you really want to rob a bank, do it subtly like I did. You don't go in with guns blazing. What I did was actually accidental but I got £100 out of it. I used to work as a bank teller and I opened an account for someone after the tills had been added up and closed and put the money (£100) in the safe for overnight security with the intention of putting the transaction through the following morning. Well, it happened that I fancied a night out that night but I didn't have any money, so I borrowed the £100 out of the safe…….with every intention of replacing it. Only, I ended up getting another job and never got to put the money back. The customer wouldn't have noticed – he was one of these rich Russians who were flooding England in the 1990s. He said he was returning to Russia and didn't know if he would be back in England in the near future. It was just something for him to do – open a bank account just in case. Well, I robbed a bank and got away with it - and had a good night out!

The plot of this story might seem Old Hat!, but it seems to happen all the time, where bank employees are tempted to have a hand in the till! and bank robbers never seem to learn a lesson. Willie Sutton, the famous Bank Robber in the 20's and 30's said," I Spend MORE TIME in Jail than it is worth to steal the money"!!! Jeffrey Lynn(Dave Bennett),"Whiplash",'48, was the V.P. of a bank and fell madly in love with Brenda Marshall (Barbara Patterson),"Footsteps in the Dark",'41, who was involved in this steal the money and try to put the money back into the bank without getting caught! John Litel(Jerremy Helm, Bank Mgr.) "Henry Aldrich Haunts a House",'43, was the president of the bank and had a kind heart and tries to help Dave in every way possible to keep the love of his life out of this bank fraud. This film lets the audience realize that stealing money whether with a gun or trying to play around with bank books or paper work, is still a serious CRIME that people seem to always think they can get away with in all generations and unfortunately future generations to come! I must mention a great movie star who appeared in this picture, his name is:- WILLIE BEST, who was Dave Bennett's servant. Willie Best appeared in 118 films, like:- "Nancy Drew Trouble Shooter",'39 and was a great Africian American Veteran Actor who was not given credit for the great acting he performed, I always respected him for his great acting abilities! If you really love old classic films and good acting, take the time, sit back and enjoy this film about what people are still DOING TODAY!