Counterfeit (1936) Poster

(1936)

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5/10
Should've Been Better
boblipton28 July 2007
This second feature about how Chester Morris goes undercover to break up a counterfeiting ring is a decent effort, but has all the earmarks of something that should have been better. It has a fine cast including Morris, Lloyd Nolan, Claude Gillingwater doing one of his patented grouches and the always believable Marc Lawrence as a hood. But minor irritations, including Margot Grahame doing a poor line reading, a script that seems to overstate the obvious and, most annoying to me, bad soundwork, render this no more than adequate.

Usually you don't notice sound in a movie like this, but I have several issues. First, everyone but Chester Morris speaks clearly and at the same sound level at all times. Second, there is not much Foley work: except for a few sequences, there is no world outside the characters. And finally, the music track doesn't exist, except in a few scenes, where its presence calls attention to itself and its lack elsewhere.

George McKay has a nice turn as 'Angel', an expert in how to act to avoid being identified as someone who passes 'queer' money. But other than that, there is little to lift this movie into anything particularly interesting. So it's a decent time waster, and little more.
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4/10
The phony buck stops here.
mark.waltz17 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Just another typical 30's racket drama, this one involving the kidnapping of Claude Gillingwater, that lovable old codger from all those Shirley Temple musicals who grumbled for 85 minutes then broke into a last minute smile to show that "Little Miss Fix-It" had reformed him. Here, he never breaks into a smile, but he does the opposite of reform: he is kidnapped by Lloyd Nolan's gang to use his knowledge of money plates to make counterfeit money that can be passed off as real. Nolan's girlfriend, Margot Grahame, has an innocent sister (Marian Marsh) who finds out too much and ends up being held hostage by them so she won't squeal. Little does Nolan know that his right-hand man Chester Morris actually works for the same federal bureau as Gillingwater and is out to break up their racket. Grahame has no idea that it is Nolan's idea to get rid of Marsh in a sudden accident, but Morris has a plan of bringing the gang down.

This has moments of romance and comedy among the crime, especially thanks to Gillingwater who seems to be one of the inspirations for the grouchy old men on "The Muppets", getting Nolan's other gang members drunk so he can somehow escape. While it is very enjoyable overall, the cliched characters and stilted dialog bring it down to the level of the laziest of common crime drama devices. Grahame reveals herself to be quite a nasty piece of work in getting her innocent sister involved, and after proving herself to be a pistol packin' mama gets a shocking exit which leaves Nolan with a poignant finale. But the last denouncement is left to Gillingwater who finally gets to laugh a little bit which brings on a sudden bout of stomach pains. I've seen many films of this nature, and while this is far from the worst, it is obvious that it could have been much better.
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