[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Strange Bargain

  • 1949
  • Approved
  • 1h 8m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
932
YOUR RATING
Strange Bargain (1949)
Film NoirCrimeDrama

In order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder... Read allIn order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.In order to cash-in a life insurance policy, a failing business owner asks one of his employees, who has financial woes of his own, to aid him in disguising his suicide into a robbery-murder.

  • Director
    • Will Price
  • Writers
    • Lillie Hayward
    • J.H. Wallis
  • Stars
    • Martha Scott
    • Jeffrey Lynn
    • Harry Morgan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    932
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Will Price
    • Writers
      • Lillie Hayward
      • J.H. Wallis
    • Stars
      • Martha Scott
      • Jeffrey Lynn
      • Harry Morgan
    • 31User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos5

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster

    Top cast25

    Edit
    Martha Scott
    Martha Scott
    • Georgia Wilson
    Jeffrey Lynn
    Jeffrey Lynn
    • Sam Wilson
    Harry Morgan
    Harry Morgan
    • Lt. Richard Webb
    • (as Henry Morgan)
    Katherine Emery
    Katherine Emery
    • Edna Jarvis
    Richard Gaines
    Richard Gaines
    • Malcolm Jarvis
    Henry O'Neill
    Henry O'Neill
    • Timothy Hearne
    Walter Sande
    Walter Sande
    • Sgt. Cord
    Michael Chapin
    Michael Chapin
    • Roddy Wilson
    Arlene Gray
    Arlene Gray
    • Hilda Wilson
    Raymond Roe
    Raymond Roe
    • Sydney Jarvis
    Robert Bray
    Robert Bray
    • McTay
    Wanda Cantlon
    • Minor Role
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Ferguson
    • Office Worker at Meeting
    • (uncredited)
    Charles Flynn
    • Officer Hogan
    • (uncredited)
    Dan Foster
    • Tip
    • (uncredited)
    Joel Friedkin
    • Canon
    • (uncredited)
    John Hamilton
    John Hamilton
    • Employee at Meeting
    • (uncredited)
    Katherine Lytle
    • Minor Role
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Will Price
    • Writers
      • Lillie Hayward
      • J.H. Wallis
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews31

    6.7932
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    7kalbimassey

    Bourgeois Noir

    Sam Wilson (Jeffrey Lynn) is a well respected Christian man, residing in an attractive middle class neighborhood. He has a responsible job, plus an adoring wife and family. Unfortunately, financial issues are threatening to turn suburban bliss into suburban blues.

    On the very day that this meek, mild-mannered male musters sufficient courage to request a raise, his boss (Richard Gaines) offers him an unexpected windfall, provided that he is prepared to be the pivotal figure in a bizarre murder/suicide insurance scam. Will Lynn, the archetypal shrinking violet, shrink from violence?

    Following Gaines suspicious death, cantankerous colleague, Henry 'O Neill is the investigation's centre of interest, but the shudder at his own shadow, wouldn't say boo to a goose Lynn also comes under the microscope of diligent, disabled detective and local celebrity, Harry Morgan, respected for a war record superior to anything that Glenn Miller ever released.

    At an efficient, in-BANG-out 68 minutes Strange Bargain ought to have been fairly flab free, but there are moments of unnecessarily leaden footed talkiness along the way. With injury time approaching, the movie finally wriggles free from its inertia and hits pay dirt, courtesy of a couple of nifty plot twists and some eyebrow raising surprises.
    8Handlinghandel

    The Grim Underbelly of Suburbia

    Picture Ward Cleaver or the Robert Young character in "Father Knows best" in deep trouble. That's what we're shown here, with always handsome Jeffrey Lynn as the suburban dad.

    The title bargain is his boss's asking him to help him make a suicide look like murder so that he (the boss) can leave insurance money for his family.

    Hey! This doesn't figure in the softball and charity meetings of this town! Nor does Lynn's having, before this, been laid off by the boss.

    Katherine Emory is excellent as the not so very grieving widow. Harry Morgan is just fine as a police detective who walks leaning on a cane. And Martha Scott is superb as Mrs. Jeffrey Lynn: She's most famous for her touching portrayal of Emily in "Our Town." but she had fa greater depth, as shown most notably in her magnificent performance in "So Well Remembered" a couple years before this little charmer came out.

    Ah, for the days when local television showed low budget movies like this to fill up time. Now we have to wait fore them to appear out of nowhere on Turnwer Classics or be programmed at places like the Film Forum here in New Yiork. After all: What self-respecting person what want to waste a plasma TV on a black and white movie?!
    6Doylenf

    Interesting low-budget mystery starring Jeffrey Lynn...

    When JEFFREY LYNN had to leave his career during WWII for the armed services, it seemed to cut into whatever momentum he had built up at Warner Brothers. By the time he did STRANGE BARGAIN for RKO, his dwindling career wasn't exactly in high gear. Nevertheless, he gives a good performance here as a man unwillingly caught up in a chain of events that almost lands him in a great deal of trouble.

    He's an assistant bookkeeper at a law firm that is going through hard times. On the day that he gets up enough courage to ask for a raise, he's told that because of all the cuts being made, he has to be let go. His boss, however, has a strange bargain to make with him and that's the nub of the story without giving any more of the plot away.

    MARTHA SCOTT is fine as his loving wife who never suspects anything is wrong until she makes a certain discovery. HARRY MORGAN is the detective who knows something isn't quite right when Lynn's boss is found not a victim of suicide, as had been planned, but a victim of murder. KATHERINE EMERY, an interesting actress who had been used well in THE LOCKET, has a pivotal role as the dead man's widow but plays the role so stiffly that it's not easy to believe the film's ending.

    It's a story that catches interest from the start and maintains that suspense throughout. JEFFREY LYNN, never an actor given to much emotion, is calm and stalwart as the innocent victim of circumstances beyond his control.

    A B-film worth catching if you can.
    snicklefritzy

    Interesting Trivia

    An interesting note about this movie: The TV Series "Murder, She Wrote" produced a "sequel" to it in a 1987 episode, "The Days Dwindle Down," (episode # 3.21). Several actors, including Harry Morgan, reprise their roles. Jessica Fletcher re-solves the original crime by interviewing several of the original characters some 30 years after the fact (actually closer to 40 years!). The episode makes nice use of scenes from the original movie as flashbacks to explain the plot. Imagine the surprise of watching a typical MSW episode about an old murder, and then a 34-year-old Harry Morgan suddenly pops up in B&W interviewing the same (though younger) witnesses about the same murder!
    9hotangen

    Time travel to suburban L.A. circa 1949

    Because it's only 68 minutes and has no Big stars or director, it's a B film, but it's better than many an A film that it shared billing with. The story, though lacking suspense, is engrossing, and Lynn, Scott, and Morgan are superb. The best part of the movie for me was seeing suburban family life in 1949. Lynn and Scott are happily married and have 2 happy children. Scott volunteers at church and Lynn says grace before meals. But their happy home is threatened because Lynn's salary is insufficient to support a wife and 2 school-age children. Scott tells Lynn to ask for a raise, after all, he's been with the company for 12 years (he didn't serve 4 years in WW2?) The option of Scott getting a job occurs to neither of them, but then, this was years before the feminist revolution.

    The script is excellent. Dialogue supports characterization so that we 'know' all of these people. I liked Lynn. He's a decent man, one who on the spur of the moment makes the wrong choice. His mistake in judgment ensnares him in a tightening web of trouble. I liked Scott, who exemplifies the perfect mate. I liked Morgan, who always gets his man, but who makes sure that he gets the right one. The ending is a surprise, though once revealed, seems obvious. I liked the director's touch at the finish of having Morgan's cane disarm the murderer just in the nick of time. In fact, I liked everything about this little B film.

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to contemporary articles in Los Angeles newspapers, Pat O'Brien and Robert Young were considered for the lead in this picture at various times during pre-production.
    • Goofs
      When Sam pulls into the circular driveway of his boss's home, he pulls completely past the house. When the camera cuts to him getting out of his car, the car is parked very close to the front door of the house. The same shot of the car pulling far around the driveway is used again when he drives over to see Mrs. Jarvis; again, the shot of him getting out of the car puts him very close to the house's front door.
    • Quotes

      Sam Wilson: Darling, I made a terrible mistake. But I'll never make another one.

      Georgia Wilson: Oh, yes, you will. You'll make lots of them. Not like this, of course. But you're a man, and men are always making mistakes. Even -- even women make them sometimes.

    • Connections
      Edited into Arabesque: The Days Dwindle Down (1987)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ14

    • How long is Strange Bargain?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 5, 1949 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Extraño convenio
    • Filming locations
      • Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California, USA(Where Sam Wilson disposed of the gun that Malcolm Jarvis used to kill himself)
    • Production company
      • RKO Radio Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 8m(68 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.