IN THE MONEY is a vintage low budget precode comedy

IN THE MONEY

Directed by Frank Strayer. Cast: Skeets Gallagher. Lois Wilson, Warren Hymer, Sally Starr, Arthur Hoyt, Frank Coghlan jr., Louise Beaver. Released November 7, 1933. Running time: 66 minutes.

Sometimes exploring into the depths of low budget cinema during Hollywood’s golden age nets some fascinating subjects. This pre-code Depression-era comedy from “Invincible Pictures” is a good example.

Arthur Hoyt is a mousy professor whose scatterbrained family is sponging off him and living without responsibility. When he loses his money, the family becomes desperate. Along comes a prizefighter who attracts the youngest daughter, and his manager who attracts the oldest. Things become dramatic when the young son is seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident, and the fighter goes back into the ring to raise money for his care.

The overall theme of this movie is a good cultural artifact for the Depression. This well to do family establishes itself in the opening scenes as being carefree about money and responsibility (e.g. the young boy doesn’t want to bother going to school, and his siblings are generally supportive of his frivolous decision. Another sister plans to head to Europe). Soon they receive word that the company in which the father has his money has gone into receivership. It is up to the oldest daughter to work things out, as her family wallows in irresponsible frivolity and her father is too moronic to even comprehend the magnitude of their problems.

The comedy comes from Warren Hymer as the prizefighter, who has developed an interest in acting. But it is not working as a character actor in movies that interests him. That would make too much sense. He is interested in becoming a classical actor. Hymer specialized in playing just the sort of lovable mug he portrays in this movie. His bumbling manner and his sluggish speech are perfect to put over the comedy in his rehearsing Shakespeare. Hymer’s recitation of lines from the Bard’s plays is the comic highlight of the movie.

Low budget films for small independent studios were quite common during the 1930s, and they allowed actors who had smaller roles in bigger productions to stretch a bit and exhibit their range. Some, however, like Hymer, had specialized in tough mug roles and found ways to use it in different contexts. Skeets Gallagher, as his manager effectively anchors the proceedings as the wise, sober, understanding figure among the scatterbrain family and the mug of a fighter. He ends up with the equally reasoned older sister.

“In The Money” is as interesting as it is entertaining. Its place in movie history is a firm and lofty position among lower budget second-features from the smaller studios in an era that has long since passed us by.