Customer Reviews

Strange Bargain

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This is a review for the VHS video tape of the film STRANGE BARGAIN,
originally a 1949 RKO release.

STRANGE BARGAIN concerns an assistant book keeper named Sam wilson, played by Jeffrey Lynn, who, while trying to get a raise after 12 years, finds out that not only is he out of a job, the company is going under as well. And the wealthy boss, Malcom Jarvis, played by Richard Gaine, is as broke as the company and has only one asset, an unusually large life insurance policy which he enlarged a few months before.

The assistant book keeper and the boss have a well earned respect for each other and the boss decides to confide to the asst book keeper, Sam wilson, that he is planning to commit suicide at a fixed time this Saturday night when no one else wil be home. He wants the employee to take a ten thousand dollar payment for coming over to the boss's house after the deed is done and make sure everything looks like a murder/robbery was committed. If the scheme works the boss's family will get the insurance money and will be taken care of for many years to come.

So come Saturday night Sam Wilson sits uncomfortably in his home, everyone else in his family is preoccupied with other activities, wondering if he should drive over to the boss's place. Finally, he gets into his car and motors over. Sam finds the body, does what he can to make it look like a murder scene and goes home.

The police, headed by a very sharp investigator well played by Harry Morgan, find any number of discrepencies and so virtually everyone who knew the boss is a suspect on some level.

In the meantime Sam Wilson, still with the envelope containing the $10,000 the boss gave him, is struggling with himself to keep his mouth shut only he vaguely seems to realize that a noose is framing his neck ever tighter as time goes by.

STRANGE BARGAIN is quite a fast paced noirish little thriller with excellent performances by Jeffery Lynn,
Martha Scott as his wife and Harry Morgan as the cane wielding police detective. Things wrap up fairly
rapidly towards the end so a viewer is advised to stay alert or this one could zip right past you.

Many years later a heavily edited version of STRANGE BARGAIN was used as the basis
for an episode of the long running TV detective series, "Murder She Wrote."

I give STRANGE BARGAIN four stars.

This is a review for the DVD release of STRANGE BARGAIN, an RKO film that
was originally released in 1949.

STRANGE BARGAIN concerns an assistant book keeper named Sam wilson, played by Jeffrey Lynn, who, while trying to get a raise after 12 years, finds out that not only is he out of a job, the company is going under as well. And the wealthy boss, Malcom Jarvis, played by Richard Gaine, is as broke as the company and has only one asset, an unusually large life insurance policy which he enlarged a few months before.

The assistant book keeper and the boss have a well earned respect for each other and the boss decides to confide to the asst book keeper, Sam wilson, that he is planning to commit suicide at a fixed time this Saturday night when no one else wil be home. He wants the employee to take a ten thousand dollar payment for coming over to the boss's house after the deed is done and make sure everything looks like a murder/robbery was committed. If the scheme works the boss's family will get the insurance money and will be taken care of for many years to come.

So come Saturday night Sam Wilson sits uncomfortably in his home, everyone else in his family is preoccupied with other activities, wondering if he should drive over to the boss's place. Finally, he gets into his car and motors over. Sam finds the body, does what he can to make it look like a murder scene and goes home.

The police, headed by a very sharp investigator well played by Harry Morgan, find any number of discrepencies and so virtually everyone who knew the boss is a suspect on some level.

In the meantime Sam Wilson, still with the envelope containg the $10,000 the boss gave him, is struggling with himself to keep his mouth shut only he vaguely seems to realize that a noose is framing his neck ever tighter as time goes by.

STRANGE BARGAIN is quite a fast paced noirish little thriller with excellent performances by Jeffery Lynn,
Martha Scott as his wife and Harry Morgan as the cane wielding police detective. Things wrap up fairly
rapidly towards the end so a viewer is advised to stay alert or this one could zip right past you.

Many years later a heavily edited version of STRANGE BARGAIN was used as the basis for an episode of the long running TV series, "Murder She Wrote."

I give STRANGE BARGAIN four stars.