Reportage à l'américaine

A crew of phony spiritualist scammers hooks a big bucks sucker, but things get complicated when an undercover reporter joins the crew.

It's hard to do a spiritualist scam movie without getting hokey, especially with the lesser technology of the 30's. Nope, no digital wonders here, just costumed characters, back- projection screens, and fateful voices. Do the suckers fall for the phony theatre. Of course, they do, and for big money, too. I guess the pigeon here is smart enough to be a big-time investor, but dumb enough to be taken in by dime-store theatrics.

Anyway, if you can get past the stumbling narrative and the awkward staging, there are a few compensations. Actress Busch conveys a sassy sense of reality that may not fit with the rest, but lends needed spark to the flat direction (two directors, which probably didn't help). Looks like she should be trading barbs with other street-smart types like Joan Blondell. Auer's got the face of a supernatural type, but rather surprisingly, doesn't play it up, thus weakening a pervasive sense of evil. And, I may be alone, but actor McCarthy could pass for an earlier edition of Paul Newman, at least in some shots. Too bad he died so young. And those two hulking black door guards amount to a note of visual inspiration, even if their dialog amounts to Amos and Andy.

Overall, the movie's not bad enough for camp. In fact, it might even suffice for old movie junkies, like myself.

The Amazing Mr. X (1948) - watch that one for a fairly good film on the subject of a scamming swami it's in the same vein of Sucker Money. The Amazing Mr. X (1948) really is far superior to Sucker Money - it's not as cheesy and a much darker film.

Sucker Money isn't a great script, it's bad really, but it's a fun film. Lots of hogwash, bologna and cheese - lots and lots of cheese. I enjoyed the film to a degree because I take it all in fun. It's just a film to watch if you want to see a swami on film in a mildly entertaining bad story.

I really don't recommend Sucker Money to most people - but it is a film for people who are interested in occult topics and scams as well as enjoys the older films.

5/10

Mischa Auer of all people plays Swami Yomurda--the leader of a vicious gang of swindlers. They bilk folks out of their fortunes doing fake clairvoyant shows...and they aren't above killing as well! A reporter infiltrates the gang and becomes a trusted member of their team. However, this gets him in bad with his girlfriend...who thinks he's a crook as well. Here's where it gets dumb...he finally tells her that he's posing as a crook in order to catch them all breaking the law...but he tells her this in a public place and, wouldn't you know it, a gang member is nearby and tells the boss. DUH!!! Will he manage to escape with his life AND stop these thugs?

The acting is occasionally dopey and the film also relies on a stupid and tired plot device--Swami uses hypnosis to make the newspaper man's girlfriend become his slave. Pretty dumb...which is a shame as the IDEA of the film is pretty good.

It's rather unbelievable that anyone would fall for this spiritualist stuff. Here the spiritualist world is simply a movie shown on a regular movie screen, which isn't very other worldly. There are a number of interesting 1930s characters in the movie though, which made it pretty enjoyable to me. It's interesting to contrast their fake "spiritualism" work day personalities with their actual everyday personalities. The 2 black dudes spend their working day being zombie like guards, but then enjoy tossing dice after work. I'd enjoy hanging out with them more than anybody else in the movie.

Anyway I always enjoy Misha Auer, who never gets a starring role, as far as I know, except in this movie. I also enjoyed seeing Mona Lisa, in her only talking role. I always wondered what she did after posing for that painting :-)

An undercover newspaper reporter answers an ad for an acting job and winds up with a swami taking "Sucker Money" in this 1933 film.

Mischa Auer plays the crooked swami, who has a team of people appearing as loved ones to unsuspecting suckers and cheating them out of their money. Then the team grabs the money and runs to another location.

This was a difficult film to follow because the film looked terrible and had bad sound. I assumed the story would focus on the undercover reporter, but he barely had anything to do.

I didn't like the movie.