Review by Michael_Elliott

Money to Loan (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Another winning entry in the Crime Does Not Pay series from MGM. This, the 21st entry, talks about loan sharks and the evil they do. Many desperate people are needing money so they go to a new loan shark in town but soon he is beating them, stalking them and doing worse in order to get them to pay back their loans. Many people are hard on this series saying that they seem like moral plays with someone on a soap box preaching. I've never agreed with a statement like that because this is one of my favorite series but I must admit that this one here is way too preachy. The movie goes way too far out in order to show how mean loan sharks are and I think the message could have gotten across without so many "look how mean they are" sequences. Alan Dinehart is very good as the main shark and Paul Guilfoyle steals the film has his gun carrying sidekick. There's some nice drama in the film but I still wish they had cut back on some of the preaching. With that said, fans of the series should still find plenty of entertainment here.