Customer Reviews

Smart Money

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a review for the WB DVD release of the 1931 film SMART MONEY,
a WB film starring the just established Edward G. Robinson (LITTLE CEASAR)
along with what they hoped would be their newest star, James Cagney,
who was at the same time filming THE PUBLIC ENEMY.

The story concerns a immigrant barber who seems like he rarely loses when
gambling. This amateur gambler gets the idea to take on investors,
go to the big city and challange the legendary gamblers who rule the urban
roost. So after raising ten thousand, the barber goes to the city in search
for some big action.

After one night the barber is trimmed quite handily by small time sharpers
and eventually has to admit defeat. Until, after getting a barber's job in the
big city, he hits upon a plan to take the sharpers using his old know how and
a new found sense of confidence.

A vastly entertaining film, Robinson is in his early glory and Cagney
is just finding his familiar self in this almost unknown film.
Separately, and in their scenes together, they show what they
can do and won't disappoint anybody except those who want more.

SMART MONEY is loaded with raffish characters, including a snakey
Boris Karloff character, riotous un-PC slang, ha-cha blondes and a fast
paced script that keeps the players hopping.
In one remarkable scene, there's a shot with three of the hottest
stars of 1931 standing together, Karloff, Robinson and Cagney.

The WB DVD package contains the usual fun featurettes just to round
out your night at the WB movies. I think that the most remarkable
thing about SMART MONEY is that it hasn't been available for years.
Four Stars.

"Smart Money" was the follow up film for Edward G. Robinson after his smash hit as "Little Caesar". This is a very rare film which has been unseen for years. Not only is it of interest to historians but it stands up very well today and is good entertainment. Released in 1931, some 5 months after the former film, it is a much better production in every way, although the story is tamer. Robinson plays a barber with a renowned gambling ability who hits the big city, funded by his friends from home and hoping to make a mint. The film traces his progress from small town hick to big city gambler but lacks the violence of "Little Caesar". Robinson himself requested that the more unattractive traits of his character be toned down and in this one, he is much more vulnerable and likeable, with a penchant for blondes. He is supported by James Cagney in his last supporting role. The film is very well directed by Alfred Green and is surprisingly detailed for a Warner's film of this period, an A film, no doubt about it. The print is excellent.

The real gem of this DVD is the outstanding commentary which can be played with the film. Two erudite historians place the film squarely in its context: the advent of sound, Warner Brothers lead in recording, the pre-code aspects of the script and characters and finally, biographical information about the stars, all delivered and paced beautifully. Wow! The DVD also contains a crude trailer for "Other Men's Woman", another film with Cagney in a supporting role, a brief newsreel with a glimpse of Al Capone and a very old classic cartoon. There are two musical short films. The first stars the famous George Jessel who introduces a Russian choir with some starchy comedy. The other is much better - a neat broadway yarn with a long forgotten singer Walter O'Keefe, who has a great way with a song and can actually deliver dialogue. It is surprisingly good.

This is a very good DVD package, even better value if purchased as part of the Warner's Gangster Series, Volume 3.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "SMART MONEY" (11 July 1931) (81 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- The pairing of Robinson and Cagney was a masterpiece -- They played off each other like dueling banjos -- Both men had just come off their breakthrough performances in Little Caesar and Public Enemy respectively. Of the two of them, Robinson comes off far the better -- It is too bad that they both got so big they couldn't fit on the same screen together again.

When you watch the film, look for a brief cameo by Boris Karloff -- He does have a few speaking lines, but has a rather odd accent -- a Brit trying to sound like an American mug --- It's a treat seeing Karloff, Robinson and Cagney in a brief yet memorable scene.

Edward G. has the flair to take it all in stride and makes the viewer feel honored to watch the master of his craft at work.

Under the production staff of:
Alfred E. Green [Director/Producer]
Kubec Glasmon [screen story]
John Bright [screen story]
Lucien Hubbard [screen story]
Joseph Jackson [screen story]
Kubec Glasmon [dialogue]
John Bright [dialogue]
Lucien Hubbard [dialogue]
Joseph Jackson [dialogue]
Robert Kurrle [Cinematographer]
Jack Killifer [Film Editor]

BIOS:
1. Alfred E. Green [Director]
Date of Birth: 11 July 1889 - Perris, California
Date of Death: 4 September 1960 - Hollywood, California

2. Edward G. Robinson [aka: Emmanuel Goldenberg]
Date of Birth: 12 December 1893 - Bucharest, Romania
Date of Death: 26 January 1973 - Hollywood, California

3. James Cagney [aka: James Francis Cagney]
Date of Birth: 17 July 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 30 March 1986 - Stanfordville, New York

the cast includes:
Edward G. Robinson - Nick 'The Barber' Venizelos
James Cagney - Jack
Evalyn Knapp - Irene Graham
Ralf Harolde - Sleepy Sam, earlier mistaken for Hickory Short
Noel Francis - Marie (Sleepy Sam's girl)
Margaret Livingston - District Attorney's girl
Maurice Black - Greek barber
Boris Karloff ... Sport Williams

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 81 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (03/25/2008)

"Smart Money" is a strange movie, to say the least. It was made right after Edward G Robinson's breakout performance as Rico in "Little Caesar" (The G was for Goldenberg, his real name), and Warner Brothers was anxious to spin off another crime film with Robinson asap. But Robinson was not at all like Rico nor was he interested in making a career as a tough guy, so he demanded changes in the script of "Smart Money" to soften his image. The result is a script that shows Nick the Barber (Robinson's character) alternately being sweet and sour, friendly and psychopathic. Robinson occasionally falls into the "Yeah, that's right sister" accent that he used so forcefully in "Little Caesar" but then reverts to a caring sweet small town barber.

Robinson's character is not the only strange part of this film. Early on a woman comes to him and whispers in his ear and Nick hands her $100 bill (making one wonder how a small town barber has a $100 bill in his wallet). She walks up the street and hands the bill to Boris Karloff (an uncredited role even though he speaks several lines) who is lurking in the shadows (where else?), and then Karloff shows up in the back room of the barber shop where Nick and his friends are playing craps. Nick recognizes the $100 bill, forces Karloff to bet the entire sum, and then kicks him out when he loses. The two scenes make no sense and suggest that several more scenes were cut, which is possible when you consider "Smart Money" runs longer than "Little Caesar".

If these features aren't strange enough, we have Jimmy Cagney playing a supporting role. Cagney shot "Smart Money" while he was shooting "Public Enemy" and often had to run between the two sets (both were produced at Warners). Once "Public Enemy" came out, a few months after "Smart Money" debuted, Cagney became a major star and would never appear as a supporting actor again. In fact, even while "Smart Money" was being made, the studio knew that Cagney was going to be a huge hit, so they enlarged his part, but they didn't do it seamlessly, so Cagney seems to pop in and out of the film.

BTW - the guy who helps Cagney hold up the poker game is Donald Cook, the actor who played Cagney's brother, Mike Powers, in "Public Enemy". Cook's role goes uncredited.

As a historical film, we have Edward G Robinson, James Cagney, and Boris Karloff at the very starts of their careers ("Frankenstein" would be released about the same time as "Public Enemy"), all together in the same scene. Other than this, however, the film tends to be tedious. The "kinder, gentler" gangster film unless supporting a comedy usually falls flat, and given such contemporaneous films as "Scarface", "Little Caesar", and "Public Enemy", "Smart Money" has tended to be ignored.

3.2711 stars

Hot on the heels of the big box office takes of Public Enemy and Little Caesar, 1931's Smart Money has their stars but few of their charms. It's a pretty good film but no more, and left little lasting impression on me. Edward G. is certainly decent, but the role could have been written better, and Cagney is rarely seen, a shame as his interplay with EGR is the highlight here, especially the mime bit about the dame's shapeliness.

I've looked at many sites for the few reviews of this film but have not seen one mention of the connection in Smart Money (a seemingly obvious one) of Nick "the Barber" Venezelos as played by EGR, and Nick "The Greek" Dandalos, one of the most famous of mid-20th century gamblers. He is clearly the template for Robinson's character, from his taste for blondes to his popularity as a big roller despite being a cheat. What's weirdest here is the shifting portrayal of Nick as both a really nice guy and a hardbitten cheat (but only when they deserve it. Yeah, right...). This constant incongruity speaks to an early Hollywood when gangsters were still national heroes and crooked cops were endemic. This is 1931, after all, and the Depression was just getting into full swing.

Robinson and Cagney, all five feet nothing of them, stand eye to eye at various points but they sure don't seem like tough guys in retrospect...and certainly neither matches his gravitas in Caesar or Enemy. Prohibition is never mentioned, and there are plenty of plot holes which function as potholes in the film, slowing it down when it might ramp up a bit. The crooked card games are ridiculous, and the whole thing is just too patently a moral fable. The ending is predictable and rather unbelievable (little Edward G. punched that hard? I don't think so...), and despite some good moments and an engaging turn by Robinson, Smart Money is worth watching if it should cross your path, but hardly worth seeking out as any sort of Grail.

And of course, as always, the old black and white film rule applies: never trust a dame!

Smart Money (Alfred E. Green, 1931)

Smart Money was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay (losing to The Dawn Patrol). Which is kind of interesting given how silly this movie gets at the end; slow year for scripts? But I digress. It would have been pretty much impossible to go wrong with audiences in 1931 if you threw together the stars of the year's two biggest gangster films, shot a quickie, and released it. That's exactly what Green (The Jackie Robinson Story) did; the top billing in this movie goes to Edward G. Robinson, coming off a big score in Little Caesar, and Jimmy Cagney, coming off a big score in The Public Enemy. Which is all well and good, but you can see where the quickie angle came through--Cagney's role is barely big enough to fill a quart bottle. (Robinson, on the other hand, definitely deserves top billing.) As a side note: this would be the only film Robinson and Cagney made together in their long careers (much of which each spent under contract to Warner Brothers).

Plot: Robinson plays Nick "The Barber" Venizelos, who really is a barber when he's not playing high-stakes poker, dice, or the like in the small burg of Irontown. (Cagney plays his assistant at the shop, Jack.) While there's no doubt The Barber is the big winner, and possessed of almost supernatural luck, it's a friendly game. When The Barber hears of a big poker game being put together in the Big City by legendary gambler Hickory Short, the boys stake him the ten grand entry fee and off he goes. Needless to say, the spirit of Horatio Alger is not looking over The Barber's shoulder, and he gets skint. All well and good until next morning, when he's sitting in the hotel restaurant and sees in someone else's paper a story about Hickory Short getting released from a six-month stint in jail that day. Realizing he's been set up, the Barber decides to exact revenge, so he sets up a barbershop in the big city to raise cash...

There's a lot more to it than this, given the episodic way pre-Code films tend to progress (the story of the Barber's skinning and revenge takes up roughly the first 40% of the film), and given that it's an early-thirties morality play, you know how it's going to end. That does not, however, stop you from rooting for Venizelos from the get-go. Robinson, always well-known for playing tough-as-nails gangsters, opens up his range a little here. Yeah, he's still a gambler and a con man, but Robinson shows some comic timing, and the Venizelos role is worlds away from Little Caesar or John Allen (Two Seconds) or Wilson (The Stranger) or... you get the idea. You know how most Robinson roles, you can't imagine anyone else doing it? I could see Peter Lorre here, if he had a Greek accent. Venizelos is a softer kinda guy than Robinson normally plays, and it's testament to acting skills Robinson was rarely allowed to employ that he pulls it off here.

As for Cagney, well, you don't see him much in the first half of the film. He does get a larger role in the second half, but it's still surprising how little screen time he gets. Unlike Venizelos, who's supposed to have a tough streak to him (and does), Cagney's Jack is a straight man through and through; Syndey Greenstreet to Robinson's Lorre, as it were. Urbane, charming, always ready with a one-liner, and clear-eyed where Venizelos tends to the emotional. Of the two, Cagney would ultimately go on to greater stardom; it was already obvious, as early as the year each got his big break, that Cagney was going to be allowed a wider scope in his roles, and that's on display here. Four years later, Robinson was still a gangster; Cagney was doing Shakespeare.

All this aside, and despite an ending that will leave you howling with laughter or rage depending, Smart Money is an awful good time. A gangster film, but more in the vein of House of Games than Once Upon a Time in America. Worth seeking out. *** ½

Nick the Barber (EGR) is a skilled Barber and an even more skilled gambler - and in the era of prohibition, he manages to move to the Big City where he can apply his less *functional* but more *fun* talents.

He arrives at the big Hotel in the big City and is immediately snookered by a blonde (incidentally, his pet parkeet is named "blondie") - right away the viewer is hipped to the fact that this slick, self-assured guy has at least one downfall. His second downfall - which he ultimately survives through claer-thinking and people skills - is that he actually thinks (initially) that he can "cash in his chips", shall we say, ahead of time. He's read the riot act by a bunch of riotous theives in the guise of friendly card players.

Evalyn Knapp is the first of many "blondes" to distract the street-smart but vulnerable Nick. A very strong, atypical role, as a cigarette girl by day/hot socialite by night, which demands real acting chops.

A very early "talkie" with a good script and excellent cinematography, this one is a must-keep for fans of Edward and a new kid on the block, James Cagney; his understudy both at the Barber shop back home...and in the big city.

Robinson's performance is deeply nuanced - he keeps us our interest just edgey enough, as we decide if his criminality is malevolent or he's really just an audacious but nice guy, who simply who likes to "work the system" - illegal as it may have been - more for thrills than money. At some points, we feel almost sympathetic, especially when a corrupt, power-hungry District Attorney actually uses *him*! A tragedy results.

Extras include one of the wierdest short subjects you'll ever see, wuth George Jessel conducting a Russian Men's Choir. (It's 1931, and middle-aged men in "peasant garb" singing beautifully was something special. Good music - pitiful jokes).

Viewer should know that there is some period ethnic stereotyping also in the movie itself.

After reading some of the other reviews on this classic film, and after viewing this film for the first time... I can safely say that this is one smart film. Edward G. does an excellent job in his role as Nick the Barber. Cagney does very well, in his small supporting role...

I really enjoyed this non-traditional gangster film as Edward G. did not want to be typecast as a "tough guy" in his future films... Cagney, unfortunately was typecast as the "tough guy" in many of his films thereafter...

All in all, this is one film not to be missed... I enjoyed it, and so will you... Watch this film, before you accept any other negative reviews of this classic film...

Robinson and Cagney, are the "Original Gangsters"!!!

Well worth it if you're into either Edward G. Robinson or James Cagney....
Gritty gangsters with enough molls and bad behavior to get s Sunday School Teacher spastic......

1931's "Smart Money" is the only time Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were paired in a film. Robinson is definitely in the lead here, though. Although it's impossible to really describe Cagney as "subdued" in anything he ever did, he is toned down a bit. Robinson plays Nick the barber, who gets 10K together to gamble in one of the syndicate's big games. This turns out the way you'd expect when a small time guy goes up against the mob and expects them to play on the level. Robinson's character vows revenge as a result of this double-cross. He eventually does become a successful big-time gambler with a gambling syndicate of his own. At this point he begins to attract the attention of law enforcement.

Don't expect Robinson's Little Caesar character to show up here - Nick the Barber is a kinder gentler gangster. In fact, he's really not much of a gangster at all. He pretty much limits his law-breaking to participating in and backing gambling until the final scene, which turns out to be the height of irony.

Special Features:
Commentary track
Theatrical trailer: Other Men's Women
Two WB shorts: George Jessel and His Art Choir and The Smart Set-Up
WB cartoon: Big Man From the North