Jack Pot

It is ironic how the film opens with a formal fake message besmirching illegal gambling in the 1940's and how one storekeeper takes it upon himself to break up the crime syndicate and yet today there is not one stand alone state that does not fully support their state owned and operated lotteries that encourage tax payers to gamble on their state run lotteries.

I guess that is why we now have states such as Colorado and Illinois that have now legalized recreational marijuana. So instead of a movie called Jack Pot the government may soon be releasing a new short film praising the recreational use of their own Party Pot.

I give this outdated short film a 3 out of 10 IMDB rating mainly for the hypocrisy of the time which still holds true today some eighty (80) years later.

Jack Pot (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Part of MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series with this one looking at illegal gambling in the form of slot machines. This is yet another pretty good entry in the series, although this one here isn't among the best out there. There isn't as much drama this time out but the way the story is told keeps it interesting throughout.

Turner Classic Movies is the best place to catch these Crime Does Not Pay series as they usually show at least one a month. Some have been released to various Warner box sets as well.

This 20-minute film is one of an MGM short series called Crime Does Not Pay. "Jack Pot" is docu-drama about how social tolerance for small, seemingly harmless, illegal practices, can lead to major organized crime. The portrayals in this film indeed show how insidious the spread of crime can be. The culprit in this case is the illegal but seemingly harmless slot machine. The neighborhood drugstore has one, so does the laundry, etc.

The players are good in this film as the plot leads to local corruption and violent crime. An unidentified police chief introduces the film with a warning, "The greatest single menace to honest law enforcement is not sensational gangsterism or any other open lawlessness. It's public apathy." By accepting of petty illegal functions, the public provides a wedge for organized crime to move into in a town or city.

The case is well made in this public service type of short.

This was a very good extra on my 'I Love You Again' DVD, that was disc 4 of my 5-film 'TCM Spotlight: Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection', and part of the 'Crime Does Not Pay' series that I have quite enjoyed. In it, the police try to show that these seemingly-harmless slot machines that the mobs try to get legitimate business owners to own and install in their establishments are rigged and are the first step for these thugs, in cities, to bring crimes waves in. Rowland was one of the finer directors of these shorts, and eventually was able to make larger, better pictures (a personal favourite of mine is the first cinematic adaptation of Dr. Seuss' work, 'The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.'.

Very much worth a look if you enjoy crime films of the period!

This short starts out with something quite innocuous - slot machines - being installed in businesses around an unnamed city where a pro reform candidate has just won election. They are placed there by the head of a gambling syndicate afraid that his big gambling rackets will all be raided and taken down and he'll be left with nothing. So customers wander into a drug store and put a few nickels in the machine. Each machine will only make maybe a couple of dollars a day for the syndicate. But multiply that by 4000 machines and you have quite a haul in 1940 dollars.

The head of the gambling syndicate uses that cash to get into more violent rackets such as protection, paying expensive attorneys to defend his henchmen in court and get them out on bail. To personalize all of this, a young couple planning to marry and the young woman's father wind up as victims in the middle of this criminal activity.

The message is that even participating in small possibly quasi legal activities such as slot machines helps feed the organized crime machine. With Tom Neal as one of the good guys in one of several MGM shorts he made at the beginning of his career, and also an interesting example of mobile recording technology of the time helping crack the case.

Efficiently and spartanly made as all of the Crime Does Not Pay shorts were, there is lots of action in this one.