Money Means Nothing (1934)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Christy Cabanne

Writers:

Frances Hyland (screenplay)
William Anthony McGuire (play)

Release Date:

15 June 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

At Joe's Roadside, a popular but rundown New York roadhouse where the wealthy and not-so-wealthy hang out...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

Wallace Ford	...	Kenneth 'Kenny' McKay
Gloria Shea	...	Julie Ferris McKay
Edgar Kennedy	...	Herbert Green
Vivien Oakland	...	Helen Whitney
Maidel Turner	...	Mrs. Kerry Green
Betty Blythe	...	Mrs. Ferris
Eddie Tamblyn	...	Robert 'Robby' Ferris (as Edward Tamblyn)
Richard Tucker	...	George Whitney
Tenen Holtz	...	Mr. Silverman
Ann Brody	...	Mrs. Silverman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Irving Bacon	...	Navy Secretary (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Monogram Pictures Corporation

Christy Cabanne

This Monogram drama from 1934 is from the period when they were still trying to make good movies, before they focused on cheap second features. It has a good script, a fine supporting cast, including Edgar Kennedy, who gets to do one of his patented slow burns, and Maidel Turner, who is excellent as a well meaning, gossipy neighbor. Wallace Ford is also good in the lead. Unhappily, Gloria Shea, as the female lead, is not up to the standards of the rest of the cast, which also includes Betty Blythe and Vivien Oakland, but the material is good enough to support her.

Christy Cabanne was on a bit of a roll during this period, working with small budgets but getting good casts, and here he gets to play some tricks with the camera-work. Early, character-setting scenes are shot with a highly mobile camera that swoops gracefully through the world of the rich, but it stops dead in its tracks once Ford and Shea are married and living in poverty in Brooklyn. The effect is beautifully calculated to keep the audience in a state of low-level anxiety, a trick of the camera that was discovered during the silent era but rarely used in the sound era. I can think of only a few cases, such as Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW and Sturges' THE GREAT ESCAPE that use this method.

Cabanne is often denigrated as the least of D.W. Griffith's disciples, but he managed to keep directing until his death, usually second features with small budgets. I think the low esteem he is held in is undeserved and hope that people who care about movies will give him a chance.