Strange Bargain (1949)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Will Price

Writers:

Lillie Hayward (writer)
J.H. Wallis (story)

Release Date:

5 November 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Plot:

Sam Wilson is having a hard time making ends meet. When he asks his boss for a raise, he finds out that...

Plot Keywords:

Making Ends Meet | Insurance Money

Cast

Jeffrey Lynn	...	Sam Wilson
Martha Scott	...	Georgia Wilson
Michael Chapin	...	Roddy Wilson
Harry Morgan	...	Lt. Richard Webb (as Henry Morgan)
Walter Sande	...	Sgt. Cord
Henry O'Neill	...	Timothy Hearne
Katherine Emery	...	Edna Jarvis
Arlene Gray	...	Hilda Wilson
Raymond Roe	...	Sydney Jarvis
Richard Gaines	...	Malcolm Jarvis
Betty Underwood	...	Miss Vantay
Charles Flynn	...	Officer Hogan
Joel Friedkin
James Nolan		(as Jim Nolan)
Robert Bray	...	Det. McTay
Dan Foster
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Hamilton	...	Employee at meeting (uncredited)
Theodore Rand	...	Cocktail waiter (uncredited)

Directed by
Will Price

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Lillie Hayward		writer
J.H. Wallis		story

Produced by
Sid Rogell	....	producer

Original Music by
Friedrich Hollaender		(as Frederick Hollander)

Cinematography by
Harry J. Wild

Film Editing by
Frederic Knudtson

Art Direction by
Carroll Clark
Albert S. D'Agostino

Set Decoration by
James Altwies
Darrell Silvera

Makeup Department
Josef Norin	....	makeup artist
Fae M. Smith	....	hair stylist (as Fae Smith)

Production Management
Harold Lewis	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sam Ruman	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Terry Kellum	....	sound
Francis M. Sarver	....	sound (as Frank Sarver)

Camera and Electrical Department
James Almond	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Jim Kirley	....	grip (uncredited)
Gaston Longet	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Charles Straumer	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
C. Bakaleinikoff	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
Mercy Weireter	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

This film was the basis for an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" (1984). Three of the surviving cast members appear in the show, as does some of the original footage from the film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Murder, She Wrote: The Days Dwindle Down (#3.21)" (1987)

The Grim Underbelly of Suburbia

Picture Ward Cleaver or the Robert Young character in "Father Knows best" in deep trouble. That's what we're shown here, with always handsome Jeffrey Lynn as the suburban dad.

The title bargain is his boss's asking him to help him make a suicide look like murder so that he (the boss) can leave insurance money for his family.

Hey! This doesn't figure in the softball and charity meetings of this town! Nor does Lynn's having, before this, been laid off by the boss.

Katherine Emory is excellent as the not so very grieving widow. Harry Morgan is just fine as a police detective who walks leaning on a cane. And Martha Scott is superb as Mrs. Jeffrey Lynn: She's most famous for her touching portrayal of Emily in "Our Town." but she had fa greater depth, as shown most notably in her magnificent performance in "So Well Remembered" a couple years before this little charmer came out.

Ah, for the days when local television showed low budget movies like this to fill up time. Now we have to wait fore them to appear out of nowhere on Turnwer Classics or be programmed at places like the Film Forum here in New Yiork. After all: What self-respecting person what want to waste a plasma TV on a black and white movie?!