Sucker List

Racketeers get a mailing list of people who owe money and are desperate to make dough fast. They call them up with tips on horse races -- each horse gets touted to different bettors. Some will win and be hooked, but discover that Crime Does Not Pay.

After a start covering rackets like protection, this long-running MGM short subject series settled into various swindles, usually examples of long and short confidence games that ended in violence -- something that the high-toned con artist tried to avoid. This one was called The Tip Sheet and relied on the fact that in a race with seven horses, one was going to win, so with a large list of suckers, you can convince one seventh of them that you could predict a winner; it's mass-marketing racetrack touts.

Usually swindlers like this tried to avoid violence, but violence is highly cinematic, and everyone knew this series was violent, so give 'em what they want and what they expect.

Sucker List (1941)

*** (out of 4)

This isn't the greatest entry in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series but it's still an entertaining one for fans of the series. Once again we're told that the MGM Crime Reporter is trying to bring down a racket that is causing millions of people money and a few their lives. It deals with people who pass out fake tips who hope people in debt will contact them for future tips. Of course, this is all meant to put money into the bad guys pockets as they trap people and this short shows what happens when a husband (John Archer) with a sick wife (Lynne Carver) takes the bad tip and threatens to go to the police. This has always been my favorite shorts series and this is due to how simple the stories usually were and how the studio (in their own way) tried telling people what bad things to try and avoid. Some people call these shorts over-dramatic and perhaps they are but it was just their way of hammering home stuff that many people fell victim to. This short here is a pretty good one even if the screenplay has a few weak spots including the fact that many of these victims probably shouldn't have been doing what they were. If they simply weren't trying to double and triple their money then they wouldn't have been scammed but that's just a minor thing. For the most part the film is well acted and the director by Roy Rowland hits all the right notes. Archer is pretty good in his role as is Noel Madison as the main bad guy. Look quick for Mickey Rooney's rather in a quick bit as well. While this certainly isn't the best film in the series, there's enough going on to make it worth viewing.

... as in Hugh Beaumont of TV's Leave it to Beaver.

But seriously, there has to be an easier way to steal than the con shown here. So much depends on human nature playing out as you predict it. The featured band of criminals have a list of people trying to get loans from a bank, back before there were ubiquitous credit cards for that. They figure those people have a reason to gamble. Then they act like they called a wrong number and accidentally give a tip on the races. NEXT, they have to hope that the debtor will make a bet - he will win a small amount of money. THEN they have to hope he'll come back for more, make a big bet, and THEN they make their money when they get the debtor to bet on a sure loser and pocket the money which was never actually bet in the first place. Whew! This is hard work! Wouldn't it be easier just to get a job? Or do an old fashioned bank robbery?

The short shows two people who fall for this elaborate scam. One is a man whose wife is having a difficult pregnancy. The second is a mechanic, played by future TV dad Hugh Beaumont. He is single, so he is the one to make a stink about the scam when it is reported in the newspaper.

With John Hamilton, also of future TV fame as Perry White , as the narrator.

This most definitely not one of the better of the Crime Does Not Pay Series from MGM. Considering the phone bill they had to run up making random calls to get one sucjer I can't see how this racket made any money.

Still this concerns the tragic story of John Archer and the jackpot he got into after getting a random phone call with a betting tip on a sure thing.

A couple of familiar TV faces are in this film. John Hamilton plays the stern face and voice of thoroughbred racing who will not stand for monkey business in his sport and George Cleveland as another sucker the police have to browbeat into being a witness.

Still can't see how this racket paid.

This is the MGM Crime Does Not Pay series. Crooks are trying to scam horse race betters. They circulate flyers offering sure bets. They target desperate gamblers. Bill Allen needs money and falls for the scam.

I know this scam and it's not done quite this way. It's a scam of big numbers. They send out predictions of every possible outcome. The predictions will come true for only a few, but those few will think that this is the real deal. They would be easy pickings for a subscription fee scam. This episode is not quite right. I can't buy horse racing as some sort of paragon of virtue. The commentary made me laugh.