Watch Money Madness For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fresh and Exciting

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Wow, this one is certainly a candidate for restoration.. the sound and picture quality are just terrible. Hugh Beaumont is "Steve", a crook on the run from "something"... we're not sure just what. Beaumont was the Dad on Leave it to Beaver. Steve meets up with "Julie", (Frances Rafferty) who ALSO has a past of her own. They hit it off, and that's when the trouble begins! Dick Elliot is in here as a customer in the diner... Elliot was the town mayor in Andy Griffith. Gumming up the works is Julie's elderly aunt, who sometimes fakes being ill to get attention, but sometimes really is sick. Dealing with that brings out the worst in both Julie AND Steve, so it's going to hit the fan fast! Another fun face in here is "Mrs. Ferguson"... Ida Moore. She was ALWAYS a little old lady... she had a great, tiny little part in Desk Set! (Gotta see that if you haven't already) Money Madness flows right along, no plot-holes, or glaring problems. Not many big names, which is probably why its playing on Moonlight Movies channel. Beaumont had done a bunch of war films in the 1940s, and more in the 1950s, but he's probably the biggest name in here. Directed by Sam Newfield.. he and his brother Sigmund were bigshots in "the biz", and they turned out TONS of films, starting in the silent shorts. This one is actually pretty good.

While this film has a few minor issues, it's a generally well made film noir picture and provides a wonderful opportunity to see Hugh Beaumont (the father on "Leave it to Beaver") playing a cold-blooded monster!When the film begins, Steve Clark (Beaumont) blows into a new town and gets a job as a cab driver. In one of his first fares, he has an annoying drunk sexual harasser who is out on a date with a nice girl who is refusing his advances. Julie (Frances Rafferty) is thrilled with the cab driver intervenes and he looks like a really nice guy. And, through much of the film Steve appears to be a real sweetheart. However, underneath this veneer is a real sociopath and by the time the film's over, he's terrorized sweet Julie as well as killed a couple folks...and is about to kill more!!The best thing about the film is Beaumont's performance. He is creepy and very convincing. Unfortunately, Rafferty is not very good and much of it could be the writing...as her character is too weak and a bit stupid. Plus, she believes that because she's married Steve that she cannot legally testify against him...which is NOT the case. She could not be COMPELLED to testify against him if she didn't want to...and there is also question as to whether or not they are actually married. Still, a very enjoyable film...one that I would strongly recommend to noir fans.

The story is told in flashback as Julie Clark (Frances Rafferty) is sentenced to 10 years and a reporter quips "you never know who will come along on the noon bus"!!! Like Sam Clark - he got off the noon bus eager to get a safety deposit box to stash $200,000, courtesy of a bank robbery and a too trusting partner. While driving a taxi he rescues Julie from a drunken date and she is exactly what he has ordered!! An unhappy waitress who lives with her dominating Aunt Cora, you know, the type who conveniently have a bad turn whenever they don't get their way!! Steve has ingratiated himself into their home, overhears words, enough for him to realise that with the aunt out of the way Julie would come into a nice inheritance.Hugh Beaumont, even though he ended up as father to America's favourite kid brother in "Leave It To Beaver", had a varied career in the 1940s playing everything from Michael Shayne in a series of P.R.C. films and more interestingly a couple of oddball characters - a murderous husband in "The Lady Confesses", a money mad psycho in "Money Mad" and "Apology For Murder" a sort of "Double Indemnity" on the cheap. The characters worked so well because he looked like such a regular good natured guy but behind a door or in the shadows - watch out!!!Steve and Julie marry but through circumstances (contrived by Steve involving a non existent first wife) find themselves back at Aunt Cora's again: Julie acting fed up and irritated, Steve like an ideal husband but behind that façade making sure Aunt Cora will not have a long life. He plans to plant the $200,000 in the house and when the Aunt does die (from poison he is putting in her coffee), surprise! surprise! it will soon be known that the eccentric Cora didn't believe in banks!! Julie has already discovered Steve is a homicidal maniac (that's what he is called on the blurb on the back of the DVD!!) but is forced to go along with his murderous scheme as he is also psychotically fixated on her as well ("no one can take anything away from me - including you!!"). That is because lawyer Donald whom Julie has gone to regarding probate etc, can tell by her jittery mannerisms that something is not quite right with her and he decides to do some investigating. Meanwhile Steve's disgruntled partner comes looking for him and the money - the radio is turned up loud, then boom!!!Did the writers forget the beginning by the time they got to the end or did that realise that it would be hard for an attorney to convince a jury that preppy looking Frances Rafferty could actually be a willing participant in the preceding mayhem!! Rafferty, who looked like she would really have fitted into a 1950s family TV show ("Father Knows Best", "The Donna Reed Show") was contracted to MGM in the 1940s but didn't rise above the bland ingénue - "Money Madness" may have given her her meatiest role.

Hugh Beaumont -- suffering from MONEY MADNESS -- and a variety of other pathologies, runs to a small town and romances a small town girl to put in motion his unique (and ingenious) plot to launder his stolen 200 grand. How many people will he have to murder before law or fate catch up with him?Though this is forgotten by everyone except the rare brave few who go and seek out the B-minus classics issued by PRC and, um, "Film Classics" - this film's distributor -- Hugh Beaumont, before he was father to the Beaver, acted in a fair number of minor film noirs, where he tended to play cops, detectives, and the occasional murderer. In this one, Beaumont brings his trademark likability, and family man charm to the role of a deceptive, conniving creep, on the run from the cops, and his co-conspirators in a successful bank job. And this movie turns on his unshowy but quite strong performance, as the plot depends on him being able to pretend to be "Ward" just long enough to get the heroine into his clutches, and then depends on him being the sort of Ward Cleaver that David Lynch might have used, had he got his hands on the Leave It To Beaver franchise.It's cheap -- and the last plot twist is a bit much to take -- but it's always good to see an actor use his skills for something he's not usually known for, and succeed. There was more to Hugh Beaumont than his film/TV career really let him show, and this movie is a prime exhibit.