Million Dollar Weekend

Gene Raymond and Osa Massen are on a plane bound for a stopover in Hawaii in Million Dollar Weekend, also starring Francis Lederer.

Raymond has just stolen a million dollars in securities from the firm where he works. Massen is running away, but to no avail. Lederer is on the plane and tells her that he knows she killed her husband.

Lederer causes no end of trouble once in Hawaii, and Massen and Raymond find they are attracted to one another. This leads to a big decision on both their parts.

Okay movie though I did not pick up a lot of chemistry between the leads. The end harkens back to Til We Meet Again.

Entertaining.

One evening company executive Gene Raymond decides to start a new life, with the company's money. He takes all the money & stock papers he can from his office safe and boards a plane to Honolulu, where he will switch to a plane to Shanghai. On the plane he meets recent widow Osa Massen (credited as Stephanie Paull), who is being stalked by family friend Francis Lederer who tries to blackmail her, as he claims he saw her kill her husband. Massen tries to use Raymond to get Lederer off her back, but it only leads to more trouble when Lederer steals Raymond's suitcase with the money & papers and heads to San Francisco, just as Raymond decides his boring life is exciting enough after all.

Despite what IMDb thinks, this movie is pretty far removed from film noir. It has a few elements with the dissatisfied, stealing protagonist and the blackmailer, as well as a potentially murderous widow, but it doesn't amount to much to be honest. The movie is fairly bland, things stay predictable and straight-forward, and while it does entertain decently enough, the ending is as predictable as they get.

Actor Gene Raymond went all out on this one, as he also co-wrote the story (with the producer) and directed it. He is pretty solid here, as are Massen and slimy Lederer. If only Raymond's writing and directing was more exciting. Heck, even veteran cinematographer Paul Ivano ('Black Angel', 'The Shanghai Gesture', 'The Suspect') doesn't excite here with only a few shadowy scenes.

A missed opportunity, there was potential here. Enjoyable in parts (and Raymond and Massen work well together) but not noir enough to earn a recommendation. 6/10

Pretty good noirish crime drama despite its obscurity. Seems businessman Nicholas (Raymond) is fleeing the city from something unknown to us. Also fleeing is unhappy Cynthia (Massen) who's being blackmailed by slimy Alan (Lederer) for killing her husband. Together they all meet on a commercial flight to Honolulu where Cynthia inveigles Nicholas to help her fend off the snarky Alan. So how will this star-crossed meeting turn out, especially with all the hidden interests. (I wish IMDB's Plot Summary hadn't disclosed Alan's secret for fleeing his job since that's a key part of the suspense.)

There's no attempt to charm the audience Hollywood style since the principals hardly crack a smile the whole way through. Massen's Cynthia, in particular, has to remain dour the whole way, hardly the typical leading lady demeanor. Nonetheless, her talent registers. Maybe stealing the show is Lederer's Alan who's about as slimy and dislikable as they come. I kept hoping his smirking good looks would get permanently cratered at some point.

As producer, director, and male lead, it looks like actor Raymond was following along path of actor Robert Montgomery who turned impresario several years earlier with Lady In The Lake (1946) and Ride The Pink Horse (1947). However, given Nicholas's dour personality, Raymond doesn't use his executive standing to elevate himself.

Anyway, don't look for a lot of action except for a scenic car chase and brief fisticuffs. The flick's really more about character and fate (the meet-ups) than cops and atmosphere especially with the scenic Hawaiian locations. Likely, the 72-minutes amounts to too much of a downer to ever gain a following. Nonetheless, the obscure production manages to carve out an oddball impact of its own.

Gene Raymond was a huge star in the 1930s. His lovely singing voice and pretty face meant stardom and a long marriage to a big leading lady, Jeanette MacDonald. However, by the 1940s, his pretty-boy looks were not quite so evident and film roles dried up. Here in 1948, he's far from pretty, but proves in "Million Dollar Weekend" that he was quite talented, as aside from starring in the film, he directed and co-wrote the screenplay! Overall, this B-movie is quite good.

It begins with Nicholas Lawrence at work as a stock broker. However, instead of just going home that Friday afternoon, Nick steals a million dollars worth of his companies money and bonds. His plan is to head to China and live the high life. However, on the way, he gets pulled into a young lady's problems, Cynthia (Osa Massen) is being pursued and blackmailed by a slime-bag, Alan (Frances Lederer). Alan allegedly saw her kill her husband and vows to take her for everything AND have her for his own. She is appalled and seeks help from a stranger, Nick. What's going to happen next? See the film.

The film has a few logical problems. Why would Nick CARE if a woman was in trouble? After all he IS an embezzler! Why would he leave a briefcase filled with a million sitting in his room where someone could steal it? And, why would the film co-star Osa Massen? Massen had very little charisma and really was very poor in the film. It wasn't just her odd accent--after all, Lederer also had a strong accent yet he was wonderful in the film. HOWEVER, and this is fortunate, Raymond's strong performance and the plot were able to overcome much of this. So, despite the film being in the public domain, it IS quite watchable and interesting.

I have no idea why this is classified as a comedy on this site! There are no comedic elements to this film - it is in fact a quite dark, 'film noir'-ish drama, and a very good one.

Quiet middle-aged businessman Nicholas Lawrence is fed up with his life and decides to embezzle his firm of a million dollars and flee to Shanghai. However, it becomes his misfortune to find himself seated with a dodgy pair of passengers on the plane: a beautiful young widow, Cynthia Strong, taking a trip to Hawaii to get away from it all after the untimely death of her husband, and tooth-clenchingly irritating Alan Marker, who has trailed her in an attempt to blackmail her by threatening to frame her for the murder of her husband.

When Alan has to make a trip to the gents', Cynthia begs Nicholas to help her by pretending he's an old friend of hers whom they have just mutually recognised, in the hopes that Alan will take the hint and go away. However, he instead sticks himself to the both of them like glue for the entire stopover in Hawaii and makes life miserable, culminating in his stealing Nick's stolen million and hightailing it to San Francisco. Needless to say, Nick is not now able to continue on to his destination of Shanghai, but instead he and Cynthia go in pursuit of Alan.

This is a very absorbing, well-acted dark drama with a sympathetic hero, a lovely and mysterious leading lady, and a memorably obnoxious villain (Francis Lederer, who played Alan, was the founder of the American National Academy of Performing Arts and apparently was still teaching acting up to the end of his life - so he certainly knew how to play a truly obnoxious bad guy).

Very recommended film which should be better known - you can easily imagine Bogart and Bacall in the leading roles, and if that had been the case, I think this film would have been a well-known classic, but the actors who do star in this film carry off their parts very well.