But the Original Story by Ernest Lehman and Geza Herczeg and Screen Play by Mary Loos and Richard Sale was itself a depression-era tale (written in the time of FDR's declared bank holidays)as a reverse for want-of-a-nail showing how circulated money (honestly acquired or otherwise) can solve lots of problems.
The story is laid in a Vermont community in 1933 in which six residents find themselves in some kind of a predicament because the government had declared a Bank Holiday to avoid run-on-the-bank situations happening across the country.
By a curious turn-of-events ten $100 bills are put in an inn's safe. Inkeeper Horace Taylor (Gene Lockhart) finds them and concludes they are payments from his debtors. He immediately pays off his own debts---only to be told later by his clerk, Uncle Ed (Charles Winninger), that the money belonged to a guest at the inn.
Taylor begins a frantic effort to trace and regain the money, which is merrily circulating around the town from storekeeper J. J. Johnson (Will Wright) to a landlady, Geraldine Atherton (Florence Bates), to a lawyer, Tom O'Connor ( Robert Shayne) and his wife Audrey (Gail Patrick), to an artist, Waldo Williams (William Lundigan) and his fiancée Francie Taylor (Marsha Hunt), the inn-keepers daughter. Plus, two addlepated rum-running bootleggers (Allen Jenkins and William Haade) are conducting their own search for the bills.
As Taylor trails the elusive money, the individual dramas of the various possessors are revealed. And, all hands benefit via the circulation of money, which actually is counter-productive to the leave-your-money-in-the-bank idea of Bank Holidays.
In addition to a few depression-era "knock-knock" jokes, the depression version of Charades, called "Handies" is thrown in as part of the period settings.
Originally produced and released by Republic Pictures Corporation in 1948, Republic, gearing up to eventually selling its films to television, edited it down from the original 87 minutes to a tidy 60 minutes and reissued it as "The Big Gamble" in 1954. Part of the now-missing footage included: Knock-Knock Who's there? Window!.
Window who? Window moon comes over the mountain.
T'ain't funny McGee.
Now, cut that out!
The story is laid in a Vermont community in 1933 in which six residents find themselves in some kind of a predicament because the government had declared a Bank Holiday to avoid run-on-the-bank situations happening across the country.
By a curious turn-of-events ten $100 bills are put in an inn's safe. Inkeeper Horace Taylor (Gene Lockhart) finds them and concludes they are payments from his debtors. He immediately pays off his own debts---only to be told later by his clerk, Uncle Ed (Charles Winninger), that the money belonged to a guest at the inn.
Taylor begins a frantic effort to trace and regain the money, which is merrily circulating around the town from storekeeper J. J. Johnson (Will Wright) to a landlady, Geraldine Atherton (Florence Bates), to a lawyer, Tom O'Connor ( Robert Shayne) and his wife Audrey (Gail Patrick), to an artist, Waldo Williams (William Lundigan) and his fiancée Francie Taylor (Marsha Hunt), the inn-keepers daughter. Plus, two addlepated rum-running bootleggers (Allen Jenkins and William Haade) are conducting their own search for the bills.
As Taylor trails the elusive money, the individual dramas of the various possessors are revealed. And, all hands benefit via the circulation of money, which actually is counter-productive to the leave-your-money-in-the-bank idea of Bank Holidays.
In addition to a few depression-era "knock-knock" jokes, the depression version of Charades, called "Handies" is thrown in as part of the period settings.
Originally produced and released by Republic Pictures Corporation in 1948, Republic, gearing up to eventually selling its films to television, edited it down from the original 87 minutes to a tidy 60 minutes and reissued it as "The Big Gamble" in 1954. Part of the now-missing footage included: Knock-Knock Who's there? Window!.
Window who? Window moon comes over the mountain.
T'ain't funny McGee.
Now, cut that out!