Sucker Money (1933) User Reviews (13)

"I have my own way of dealing double crossers".

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 5 November 2008]

I wouldn't have bet a plug nickel that "Sucker Money" would wind up as entertaining and interesting as it turned out to be. It had the look and feel of those 1930's era 'educational' films that purported to warn the viewer about the dangers of illicit drugs, alcohol or sex, but in this case the film was an attempt at exposing the psychic racket. The story actually had decent continuity, even if some of the players presented were extremely over the top, starting with the phony Swami (Mischa Auer), and including characters like Princess Karami (Mona Lisa, why not use her real name?), and the two black bodyguards dressed in their own set of Indian Hindu garb. Seeing them, I knew it was only a matter of time before the flick fell into racial stereotype, and they're shown throwing dice in a subsequent scene, as reporter Jimmy Reeves (Earl McCarthy) notes to the one rolling a winner - "Yo' sho' is lucky, Big Boy"!

The thing is, while watching, I got a sense that old Swami was a truly evil guy, and it wouldn't take much for him to dispose of anyone who got in the way of his making a really big score. Which got kind of wasted when he discovered Reeves' real identity as a newspaper reporter, and then just let him roam around fairly freely within the confines of the operation. You would think that Jimmy would be a quick goner, and the Swami and his crowd could have pulled off the twenty thousand dollar heist of old Walton without any further trouble. It also seemed pretty convenient that the law showed up in time to make the save, but this was over seventy years ago, and there wasn't a whole lot of time and effort that went into making a story believable if put under a microscope. Which is OK if it passes the entertainment test, and I think this was a good try if one's not too critical.

I really have to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for putting out a package that makes pictures like this available to old time film junkies like myself; without them one would never even know that they existed. This one was part of a two hundred fifty movie set on sixty double sided DVD's as party of their Mystery Collection. The great thing is, by the time you get around to viewing all the movies in the set, you wind up forgetting what the first ones you saw were all about, and you can go ahead and do it all over again!

Over the top plot

[rmanny-1 · 6/10 · 7 February 2006]

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 :-)

Swami, Swami, Bologna

[Rainey-Dawn · 5/10 · 13 May 2016]

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

Swami, how I love ya, how I love ya...

[GManfred · 25 February 2009]

I love museums and museum pieces. This is not a good movie but it gives an insight into a time that no longer exists - old-fashioned furniture, clothes and habits that went out of style way before many of us were born.That would be the only reason to see this picture.

You can also see Mischa Auer before he became a pop-eyed relief comic in many musicals of the 30's and 40's, as well as some lesser-known actors who are long-gone.The plot line is negligible and far-fetched but it's fascinating to ponder how popular psychics were in the '30s. Also nice to see the 'ever-popular Mae Busch', as Jackie Gleason used to put it on his show. Evidently a pretty good actress who lacked timeless beauty.

In short, Sucker Money is a curiosity not recommended except as a trip to the museum.

No Future for This Swami!

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 8 May 2007]

With a bunch of gullible types like this film presents, we could all make a fortune off them. They even fall for things like a back projection of film, thinking it has some magical quality. The bad guys are good at bilking unsuspecting bank presidents and rich widows by making contact with loved ones. This sounds interesting until you see it. It has that old cliché of getting rid of all your problems except the one that is the biggest danger. Why not shoot the reporter who is on to your whole scheme when you are bumping off everyone else? I'm sure mysticism would have appealed to the viewers of the time, but this is just as dull as can be. The only people I cared about were the black guards who were obviously only in it for the cash. They at least had personalities, though they had all the racial stereotypes of the era.

can't say I enjoyed this

[blanche-2 · 3/10 · 17 April 2020]

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.

Film-Flamming the rich and stupid.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 22 March 2014]

It's obvious from the get-go that this Z-grade programmer is formula from start to finish, standard stuff that never gives any surprises even if it has a few bright ideas along the way. You've got all the cardboard cut-out characters, from the con-artist fleecing the rich, the good-hearted tough dame, the wise-cracking stage manager, the dumb businessman, the fragile heroine and the handsome hero. It is also obvious that the good guys will prevail, the bad guys will pay and there will be a few innocent victims along the way. The usually over-the-top Mischa Auer takes it back a few notches to be subtle as he underplays his crooked swami (how I love ya, how I love ya...) to the point of actually making him boring. It is also obvious that when the hard-as-nails tough broad (the one with the heart of gold and liver of gin) puts on an old lady wig, she will instantly convince the heroine that she's her granny and another actor amongst the troop is her dear old dad. All this to get the rich people to invest in phony stocks (at the height of the depression, no less...) and this results in a botched kidnapping and furious chase sequence at the end. All this would be palatable if the quality of the camera work and sound wasn't so shoddy and the acting so melodramatically lame. This was done so much better years later with the campy "You'll Find Out" where Bela Lugosi had a lot of interesting gadgets as well as Karloff and Lorre and the music of Kay Kyser to basically do the same plot, but with more quality.

Mae Busch Saves the Day!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 16 February 2013]

Again Phyllis Barrington had the female lead in this follow up to "Sinister Hands" but once again she was completely overshadowed, this time by veteran Mae Busch playing an alcoholic singer employed by the sinister Swami in his fake fortune telling racket. Mischa Auer impressed as the mysterious Swami Yomurda in "Sinister Hands" the year before so he was back again in "Sucker Money". In this movie his sinisterness is exposed as downright evil - all owing to the co-director Dorothy Reid. She had been married to Wallace Reid and his death, from narcotics, led her on a one woman crusade to expose the menace of drugs through films. After ten years of films like "Human Wreckage" and "The Red Kimona" she turned to another social evil that was reaching plague proportions in Hollywood - the phoney spiritualism racket!!

Jimmy Reeves, reporter (Earl McCarty, a younger dead ringer for Jack Mulhall, star of "Sinister Hands", what happened, wasn't he available??), is ordered by his boss to apply for a job in which actors are wanted - he hopes Jimmy will be able to write an expose on crooked psychics. While there he meets Claire (Phyllis Barrington) whose father is being persuaded to invest in a phoney oil field by another of the Swami's actors. Veteran Mae Busch steals the movie with her portrayal of "Beautiful", an alcoholic ex singer who jumps at the chance of helping Jimmy expose these crooks. Of course Claire recognises Jimmy and feels he is part of the con but when he explains things he is overheard and sets in motion the thrilling climax where Claire is kidnapped and hypnotized and "Beautiful" saves the day by escaping to send an SOS to Jimmy's paper.

The theme of fake spiritualism has been shown to better advantage in any film you could name - "Darkened Rooms" (1929), "The Hole in the Wall" (1929), even the later "Bunco Squad" (1950) but Mae Busch makes this one seem better than it is by her professionalism.

A modestly interesting B-film which loses a few points for bad acting and dopey plot elements.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 18 March 2017]

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.

Hokum Bokum.

[hitchcockthelegend · 4/10 · 4 December 2018]

Victims of the Beyond (AKA: Sucker Money) is directed by Melville Shyer and Dorothy Davenport (as Dorothy Reid) and written by Willis Kent. It stars Mischa Auer, Phyllis Barrington, Earl McCarthy, Ralph Lewis and Mae Busch.

For the era it was made this deserves credit for being a fore runner to a splinter of films dealing with spiritualism - notably as a fake exercise. Unfortunately for dramatic worth it has nothing of note to offer. Plot essentially has fake medium Swami Yomurda (Auer) using his nefarious means to swindle persons of wealth out of money. Enter an undercover reporter who is intrepid in trying to unmask the scammers and save the day. The End!

It's all a bit creaky, the direction, the acting and the production as a whole really doesn't have much going for it. The premise at the core is interesting enough to hold attention for the short one hour run time - even if the first fifteen minutes drag and hardly entice one to stay through the rest of the play. Plenty of séance scenes are decently played, and thus rewards those into such shenanigans, but it becomes tiresome and the writing simply isn't good enough to drive home some thriller possibilities. 4/10

A Must See Movie!

[JohnHowardReid · 10/10 · 29 August 2017]

Mischa Auer (Swami Yomurda), Phyllis Barrington (Clare Walton), Ralph Lewis (John Walton), Earl McCarty (Jimmy Reeves), Fletcher Norton (Dan Lukes), Mae Busch (Mame), Kit Guard (janitor in the editor's office), J. Frank Glendon (Meehan), Al Bridge (Hunter), Mona Lisa (the "princess"), Anita Faye (Angel-face).

Directors: MELVILLE SHYER, DOROTHY REID. Original story and screenplay: Willis Kent. Photography: James Diamond. Film editor: S. Roy Luby. Settings by Republic Studios. Assistant director: Harry Crist. Sound by International Recording Engineers. Producer: Willis Kent. A True Life Photoplay by Willis Kent Productions.

Copyright 30 March 1933 by Willis Kent. New York opening at the Globe: 6 April 1933. U.S. release through Progressive Pictures: 5 April 1933. Never theatrically released in Australia. 8 reels. 70 minutes. U.K. release title: VICTIMS OF THE BEYOND.

NOTES: The crusading widow of silent star, Wallace Reid, turns her attention from drug abuse to another social menace: A reporter goes undercover to expose a fake psychic racket.

COMMENT: A really extraordinary "B"-movie, deserving of the highest commendation in all departments, particularly in its fine acting, suspenseful script, inventive direction, moody photography, make-up and film editing. As the vicious charlatan, Auer gives a most forcefully striking performance. Mae Busch is also an absolute stand-out, but the player who grabbed my eye was personable Earl McCarty in a difficult role which he plays with such panache — admittedly assisted by superb photography which turns his "stage" make-up into a stunning grotesque — we wonder why his films were so few.

Would have been perfect for Bela Lugosi

[asinyne · 21 April 2010]

Sucker Money is a well directed, decently written film. Its also pretty respectably acted as well. A bonus is the fact not many films have been made about phony mediums so that makes it somewhat unique. I was kinda turned off by the lipstick and eyeshadow that leading man Earl McCarthy wore until I realized that it was all part of his undercover "job"...portraying a dead soldier. Amazingly, McCarthy dropped dead of a heart attack shortly after making this movie...despite the fact he was in his mid twenties and should have been in great shape, having been a professional dancer just a couple years before. Hmmmm, something fishy about all that in my opinion. People who aren't fascinated by these old black and white films will probably find nothing here. Others, like me will find that it holds their interest throughout. This would have been a wonderful vehicle for Bela Lugosi although the fellow who portrayed the swami was very good in creepy roles. I enjoyed it! It would be cool if someone investigated what really happened to young McCarthy.

Hokey Oldie

[dougdoepke · 3 January 2017]

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.