Easy Money

Just to correct an earlier post someone made here: This film was NOT the inspiration for the 1950's American television series THE MILLIONAIRE, which featured an unseen character named John Beresford Tipton giving a million dollars to a different person every week. That series was spawned by a 1932 American film for Paramount entitled IF I HAD A MILLION.

EASY MONEY is certainly a variation on the idea, portraying various people's stories after suddenly becoming wealthy. It's interesting in spots, but never quite achieves the levels of profundity or poignancy of the 1932 film.

This movie is actually made up of 4 separate segments, each detailing how the football pools can affect someone's life.

In the first, a family discovers they have won, and at first everything is rosy. Mother wishes to move to the seaside. The son can invest some money in a mate's business. The father can rejoin the cricket team. But then the promised money causes trouble. The daughter's fiance feels inadequate marrying a rich girl. The deal is shonky. How can they live in Bournemouth AND stay in the cricket team? A lot of interesting twists in this one, to say more would give it away. 9/10 for enjoyment, though David Tomlinson does appear a bit of a bumbling fool. Keep your eyes out for 15 year old Petula Clark!

In the second, I think I fell asleep.

In the 3rd, the charming Greta Gynt does a blatantly obvious Gilda impersonation - "The Shady Lady" wears the same gloves and dress, has her hair the same way, acts the same as she sings, and is thoroughly enticing. She's a nightclub singer in need of a bit of cash. Her boyfriend works at the pools office, so she hatches an elaborate plan to fool the system and fake a win. A definite 10/10 for this one.

The final installment is light and humorous farce, about a double bass player who wins, and then discovers money isn't everything. Quick, borders on dull, but still a 6/10.

Four players of an English football pool find that they have won EASY MONEY. This movie, in four separate stories, explores how the sudden winnings changes their lives.

To a Yank, the premise of this movie (explored, documentary fashion in the first five minutes) is fascinating, as there is nothing equivalent to the football (er...soccer to us on this side of the pond) pool which brings on such large payouts. (The closest thing is the numbers racket, which, um, isn't legal.) As for the stories: The first one, featuring an average middle class British family in a loving marriage, is by far the best, in both plotting, acting, and conveying a unique sense of place. This bit is as good as Passage to Pimilco in conveying a sense of England during the late 40s. (I mean -- it has everything, austerity, taxes, cricket, Scotland Yard, and dreams of a house in Bournemouth.) Also, its always good to see a generally healthy family unit portrayed realistically; it does not happen often in the movies.

The second one, on the other hand, suffers from rampant stereotyping of meek little clerks and their domineering, officious wives. This, too, is a very English feeling story, but, in this case, not in a good way. Unsatisfactory.

The third tale is an attempt at an American style story, in which a beautiful but bad woman convinces the usual gullible male into gaming the pool so she wins the money. Like the ersatz jazz number and bad singing that starts this sequence, nothing about the story or characters here feels true. The girl is very beautiful, but her story is very phony.

The fourth tale is somewhat better, but is a self-conscious class-conscious "comic" tale of a cockney bass player for the local symphony orchestra, and his difficult relationship with the orchestra conductor. Some might like this; I found it a one joke tale stretched out far too long.

In other words, the first 40 minutes of this movie are really very good. The rest stinks.