brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

. . . of our upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti, often for the Great-Grandkids of their "First Release" audiences. SMART MONEY is no exception to this law. Edward G. Robinson, film history's one actor who can out-Rump Rump himself, is cast as a bogus casino operator who has corrupted nearly the entire government of New York, is in the process of extending his Swindling Empire World-Wide, but absolutely refuses to release his Financial Information to the Proper Authorities as he coarsely assaults one young chick after another. Beginning to sound a little familiar to Current Headlines? SMART MONEY was made prior to the Institution of the Fat Cat Roman-Run Censorship Code (aka, the MPAA Thought Police), so Warner is able to prophecy such Rump-like comments as "Say, you're a cute little trick" (to a female stranger in her twenties) and "Why, you hustling little bag, I'll have you on your knees!" while giving his First-shown Floozie $100 for an abortion after he's knocked her up. Yes, 75 years BEFORE our Deplorable 2016 Rigged Election, Warner Bros. anticipates that Lucifer's Three C's--that is, Capitalism, Communism, and "Conservatism"--would collude to install a casino racketeer money launderer for history's biggest thief ("Mad Vlad" Putin, who has stolen $1 TRILLION plus from the Russian People) in residence at our once-sacred White House despite his hobby of perverse serial sexual assaults, and Edward G. Robinson's best SMART MONEY effort to warn us!

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. Very much worth your viewing time.

Smart Money is essentially a tale about the evils of gambling, and demonstrates the truth in the phrase "The higher you climb the further you fall" Edward G Robinson plays Nick 'The Barber' a guy who's two main loves in life are blonde's and gambling. However, the rules of probability does not apply to him as he seemingly never loses.James Cagney plays Jack, his sidekick, who's loyalty to Nick is so strong that tragic consequences are bound to arise.After many of the local gamblers pool their wealth to send Nick to the City to partake in a high stakes poker game with known gambling big shot Hicory Short, (later to be unmasked as Sleepy Sam, a professional conman), the arrogant but big hearted Nick feels he can't lose.His pride comes before a very large fall, and he is cleaned out by the gamblers. The next day he realises that he's been cheated with shaved cards and vows to get even with the crooks.He opens another Barber shop to raise funds for his 'rematch' and when the time comes, cheats the cheaters by using shaved cards himself, essentially becoming the Mr Big of the gambling world.However, this brings unwanted attention for the District Attorney's office who although not a gangster, murderer or even bootlegger, still views Nick as part of the City's 'undesirable' element.After helping in the rescue of a young blonde lady who's just been fished out of the river after a failed suicide attempt, Nick, who's still a kind decent man at heart takes her under his wing. Much to the chagrin of right hand man Jack, who neither likes nor trusts Nick's new companion.Playing on Nick's love of beautiful blonde's, (and one in particular), the DA's office set up a 'honey trap' to bring him down a peg or two.Smart Money is not a brilliant movie by any stretch of the imagination. though it is enjoyable enough to look forward to repeat watchings. It's a shame that Robinson's and Cagney's only pairing together wasn't a little better.At the time of filming, Cagney was still trying to fight his way out of the supporting player 'sidekick' roles and just before the film was released, The Public Enemy made only a few short months before, had already cemented Cagney's superstar status.One major criticism I do have about the film is the blatant racism shown toward the black characters. I am usually one of the first people to advise viewers not to get too offended, and accept that the movie was made in a different time where these kind of stereotypes were not considered offensive. However, Smart Money goes WAY over the top. For instance one of the black characters is named 'Suntan' and another scene on a train sees a black porter given half a bank note as a tip and then told "You'll get the other half at the end of the line, if you're a good boy" and worst of all, the very patronising way that Nick always rubs the hair of the black characters for luck. I still have friction burns on my chin from when my jaw hit the floor on that one.That aside, Smart Money is a worthy inclusion in the filmography of both actors.Enjoy!

You might expect the only screen pairing of Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney to be a hard edged gangster drama on the order of Robinson's own "Little Caesar" or Cagney's "Public Enemy". In fact, "Smart Money" isn't a gangster flick per se, though it has it's seamy under world characters like Sleepy Sam (Ralf Harolde) and Hickory Short. Robinson even has a colorful handle of his own - Nick the Barber. You would think he got the name from cutting the throats of his victims, but he's actually a barber by profession, and a mighty lucky one at that. When his buddy Jack (Cagney) comes up with the idea to stake him for ten grand to go big time, Nick sees it as an opportunity to rise above his meager Irontown surroundings.That's where the story gets a little sloppy for my taste. After Nick gets hustled in 'The City', there are no repercussions over the lost grubstake back in Irontown. Word of his embarrassing loss doesn't seem to faze a new group of financial backers who raise another fifty thousand dollars, which he uses to track down Sleepy Sam in 'Another City' for revenge. I got a bit of a kick out of that actually, why not just call 'Another City' New York, since 'Walter Winchell on Broadway' headed one of his columns on the fast rising card sharp Nick the Barber. Which brings up another question - how would the results from a series of private card games ever make it into the newspaper? Robinson gets to play against a number of pretty blonds in the picture as he fancies himself a ladies man, but boy, the lines they came up with in the 1930's were something else. How about his come on to Marie early in the story - "Say you're a cute little trick"! There's also the blatant racism of the era; when Nick tears a bill in half for the black porter on the train, he states that the other half would be "at the other end of the line, if you're a good boy".Back to Robinson and Cagney together in this film. I almost hate to say it, but Cagney's character was a bit swishy in the story, getting touchy feely with Nick more than once. Any doubt of the homosexual subtext to their relationship is put to rest near the end of the story when they argue over Irene (Evalyn Knapp) staying at Nick's apartment. When Jack demands to know 'how long is this gonna last?', Nick replies "She'll be gone in a couple of days, and then you can be my sweetheart again dearie". Do you know how many times I had to play that over to be sure I heard it right? The one thing that's kind of intriguing if you've seen some of Cagney's very first films, he had a commanding presence in those pictures even when second billed or in a bit part. Here it looks like he might have been asked to tone it down a bit in deference to his co-star. Not to say he was laid back, considering my comments above, but it didn't look like he was willing to upstage Robinson. It's a little surprising that the two actors worked only this one time together, considering they crossed paths with other Warner Brothers contract players numerous times, like Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Joan Blondell to name just a few.