This is a very strange MGM short because it stars pretty-boy Robert Taylor in a very untraditional role. Because it was very early in his career, the big-wigs didn't know how to use him and experimented by starring him in this short crime drama--a role quite unlike his soon to be established persona.
The film is made in a semi-documentary style and is entitled a "Crime Does Not Pay" film. It begins with a narrator and government official preaching that crime is bad and then the narrator talks about a strange case that proves this assertion. Robert Taylor's character works in a bank and embezzles $200,000 (a HUGE sum of money in 1935) and is naturally sent to jail. However, very oddly, he turns himself in to the boss and doesn't try to run--saying he spent the money gambling and having fun. There's a lot more to it than that but I really don't want to spoil it. Suffice to say, though, that it's pretty exciting and what happens to handsome Taylor's face is pretty cool to see.
Overall, while not a great film, it is very unusual as well as a great curio for film history buffs and fans of Hollywood's Golden Age.
The film is made in a semi-documentary style and is entitled a "Crime Does Not Pay" film. It begins with a narrator and government official preaching that crime is bad and then the narrator talks about a strange case that proves this assertion. Robert Taylor's character works in a bank and embezzles $200,000 (a HUGE sum of money in 1935) and is naturally sent to jail. However, very oddly, he turns himself in to the boss and doesn't try to run--saying he spent the money gambling and having fun. There's a lot more to it than that but I really don't want to spoil it. Suffice to say, though, that it's pretty exciting and what happens to handsome Taylor's face is pretty cool to see.
Overall, while not a great film, it is very unusual as well as a great curio for film history buffs and fans of Hollywood's Golden Age.