Money to Burn (TV 1973)

A convict who managed to print $1 million in counterfeit bills in the prison print shop hatches a scheme to swap them for real money.

Director:

Robert Michael Lewis

Writer:

Elroy Schwartz

Stars:

E.G. Marshall, Mildred Natwick, Alejandro Rey

Cast

Credited cast:
E.G. Marshall	...	Jed Finnegan
Mildred Natwick	...	Emily Finnegan
Alejandro Rey	...	Caesar Rodriguez
Cleavon Little	...	Calvin Baker
David Doyle	...	Warden Caulfield
Charles McGraw	...	Neil Davis
Ron Feinberg	...	Big Maury Kowalski
Lou Frizzell	...	Guard Sergeant
Robert Karnes	...	Team Leader
Lew Brown	...	Guard
Paul Sorensen	...	Parking Lot Attendant
Melvin F. Allen	...	Attendant
Peggy Walton-Walker	...	Miss Turner (as Peggy Walton)
Morris Buchanan	...	Frank
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Balsam

Storyline

A convict who managed to print $1 million in counterfeit bills in the prison print shop hatches a scheme to swap them for real money.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | counterfeit | convict | money | caper | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 October 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Una hoguera de dinero

Company Credits

Production Co:

Silverton Productions, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Clever, but a bit (necessarily) disappointing...

This movie had a clever plot to it: A counterfeiter has the sharp idea to exchange a million dollars of his bogus bills with worn-out money that is earmarked for destruction. The problem is, the real money is kept in a vault, and the floor in front of it is super-sensitive to contact: even the weight of a feather will set the alarm blazing. The con (and his safe-cracking partner) ask a retired master crook how to do it. The guy half-jokingly answers, "Why don't you walk on the ceiling?"... and the partners get a wild idea.

This movie sets up the counterfeiter and the safe-cracker as the protagonists (I suppose "heroes" is too nice a term, since they are after all criminals), and that is the big weakness of the movie. We root for these two guys to pull off their harebrained scheme and to finally get away with it, but we can't forget this basic rule: this is a TV movie, and according to the Television Code a lawbreaker must be punished for his or her misdeeds. The movie tries to present us with a kind of "have your cake and eat it too" ending (I can't say more without turning it into a spoiler), but I suspect most viewers will find the ending just a bit of a disappointment.