Easy Money: A fast-talking, low-budget racket buster

Is it worth your time?

If you've got seventy minutes to kill and a soft spot for pre-code era B-movies, sure. It’s got that specific, rattling energy of a film made in a weekend, mostly for people who enjoy watching guys in suits yell at each other in offices. If you’re looking for high-art noir, you’re gonna be bored out of your skull.

Who will hate it? People who need their plots to make sense or their lighting to be more than just 'bright and flat.' It moves fast, maybe too fast, like the editor was trying to catch a bus.

The Racket

The whole premise of fake-accident insurance fraud is actually pretty fun, even if the movie treats it like a minor inconvenience rather than a crime. Dan Adams quits his job as a prosecutor to basically become a glorified claims investigator, which feels like a demotion, but he plays it like he’s joining the Avengers.

There’s a scene where he confronts his brother, Eddie, and it’s just so loud. They’re standing in this cramped room, and the tension is supposed to be thick, but it mostly just feels like they're competing to see who can gesticulate more aggressively. It’s charming, in a weird, dusty way.

Bits and Bobs

• The way the gangsters look at their watches is hilarious. Every time they're waiting for a fake car crash, they stare at their wrists like they’re waiting for a bus to the airport.
• Carol Carter is basically the only person in this whole city with a brain. She spends half the movie thinking Dan is a crook, which, fair enough, he acts like one.
• The final act falls apart faster than a cheap suit. Once they get the 'conclusive evidence,' the movie essentially decides it’s over and sprints to the finish line.

I couldn't help but think about The Devil's Circus while watching this. Both films have that weird, manic need to keep the actors talking at a breakneck speed, probably to hide the fact that the sets are made of cardboard and hope.

There’s one specific moment where someone is hiding behind a desk, and you can clearly see the cameraman's shadow moving on the wall behind them. It’s little stuff like that which makes me love these old, sloppy things. It reminds you that someone was actually there, sweating under the lights, just trying to get the shot done.

Is it a masterpiece? Hardly. But it doesn't try to be, which is more than I can say for most things released today. It’s just a movie about insurance fraud and brothers being difficult. Sometimes, that's enough for a Tuesday afternoon.