Double or Nothing

'Double or Nothing' is one of the long series of pleasant musical-comedy vehicles for Bing Crosby which were ground out so efficiently by Paramount in the late 1930s. This is one of Bing's best films from this period (not yet the peak of his career), and it features an excellent supporting cast, including veteran supporting actors William Frawley and Samuel S. Hinds. Interestingly, Frawley and Hinds are both cast against type here. Frawley usually played cynics or outright crooks, whilst Hinds usually played figures of great moral strength and probity. In 'Double or Nothing', Frawley is naive enough to get suckered by Hinds, who here plays a respected stockbroker from an old-money family: a typical Hinds role, except that this time he's secretly a crook.

SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING. The plot of this film is intriguing. An eccentric millionaire arranges for wallets to be scattered throughout New York City, each wallet containing some cash and a return address. Bing Crosby plays his usual role of an easy-going guy with no money, but in this film he's honest with it. When Bing's dog finds one of the wallets and brings it to him, Bing realises he's got to return the cash to the address inside the wallet. Three other people (Frawley, Martha Raye and Andy Devine) have also returned the wallets they found. All the other wallets were found by people who kept the money.

It turns out that this was an honesty test. The wealthy scion of the Clark family has decided to disinherit his scheming relatives in favour of these four honest souls. Each is given a cheque for one million dollars under unusual terms: each one must try to double this money within 30 days, by honest enterprise. Whoever succeeds will inherit the entire Clark fortune. If all four fail, the fortune goes to Clark's greedy relatives.

Surprisingly, Frawley loses his million straight off when Jonathan Clark (Hinds) offers to invest it for him. Frawley knows that it's in Jonathan's interests for Frawley to LOSE his money (so that Jonathan can inherit), yet he hands his cheque to Jonathan anyway. I found this extremely contrived, but the casting of Frawley and Hinds against type brings some novelty to this scene.

Jangle-voiced Andy Devine (whom I always disliked) invests his money in a driving range. Hollywood's great comedy drunkard Arthur Housman wreaks mayhem for Devine. Martha Raye plays a former striptease artist named Liza Lou. This is good casting; Martha Raye is best remembered for her peculiar facial features, but at this point in her career she had an excellent figure. Liza Lou used to take off her clothes to the tune of a ditty called 'It's On, It's Off' ... and now whenever she hears this tune she finds herself compelled to take her clothes off. Naturally, the scheming Clarks arrange for a steam calliope to play this tune at a very embarrassing moment.

'Double or Nothing' is a Bing Crosby movie, so you can guess which one of the four contestants wins the millions. Bing uses his inheritance to start up a nightclub. For some reason, the greeter in the nightclub is a donkey... or rather a stuntman who walks on all fours, wearing a surprisingly realistic donkey costume. This was rather a bizarre touch that didn't add anything to the movie. Also, Bing (who was right-handed) plays a character named Lefty, but in this role Bing doesn't seem to be more left-handed than usual. Benny Baker (whom I never found funny) makes a brief and unpleasant appearance as a sailor in a hire-rowboat.

The songs in 'Double or Nothing' are pleasant but unremarkable, and there's some classical music during Martha Raye's water ballet. A nice time-passer: not one of Bing's best films, but definitely much better than 'Doctor Rhythm' and some other Bing bungles. I'll rate 'Double or Nothing' 7 out of 10.

DOUBLE OR NOTHING (Paramount, 1937), directed by Theodore Reed, is an enjoyable, but not particularly original, musical-comedy with a typical story about how found money can change or ruin a person's life. Similar in ways to Paramount's earlier IF I HAD A MILLION (1932), this production focuses primarily on four people in one simple plot instead of separate episodes dealing with different central characters in ten minute segments. It also capitalizes on the quite common rich girl-poor boy theme and setting it to musical interludes.

The film begins with a couple of men walking about town purposely dropping wallets obtaining $100 bills on the sidewalks and over the fences. Numerous people find it and go about their way, followed by a lone dog picking up the wallet by his mouth, trailing around until he locates "Lefty" Boylan (Bing Crosby), found singing on the stool in a diner while waiting for his meal. Instead of keeping the money, Lefty encounters the address in the wallet, and although he could use the money, he decides to do the correct thing and return it to the rightful owner. Entering a lawyer's office, Lefty finds himself being seated along with three other people, Liza Lou Lane (Martha Raye), a former burlesque entertainer, "Half Pint" (Andy Devine), a tramp, and John Pederson (William Frawley), a gambler. These four turn out to be the only ones honest enough to not take the money and run. They then learn from an attorney the purpose of the wallets and of a last will and testament from a deceased millionaire who wants to prove that there are still intelligent and honest people left in the world, and as for their honesty, they are each rewarded $5,000 with the agreement that the first one to double that gift legitimately within thirty days will get to inherit a million dollars, or else, acquire nothing. The foursome have their own individual ideas on how to double their money and agree they should divide half of the estate among others. Lefty, an unemployed singer, decides to use his good fortune and open up a night club featuring entertainment acts. However, situations arise when the deceased millionaire's brother, Jonathan Clark (Samuel S. Hinds), feeling cheated of his inheritance, schemes to foil these people's plans, especially in using his pretty daughter, Victoria Clark (Mary Carlisle), to romance Lefty while his younger son, Egbert (William Henry) to do the same with Liza Lou.

In between the plot comes a handful of good listenable tunes, scored by Arthur Freed, Burton Lane, Johnny Burke, Arthur Johnston, Al Siegel and Sam Coslow, including: "Double or Nothing" (sung by chorus during opening credits); "Smarty" (sung by Bing Crosby, accompanied by a singing chef, played by Alfonse Berg); "All You Have to Do Is Dance" (sung by Crosby to Mary Carlisle, with brief dance solo by a policeman, played by Jimmy Notaro); "It's the Natural Thing to Do" (sung by Crosby to Carlisle); "It's On, It's Off" (sung by Martha Raye); "The Moon Got In My Eye" (sung by Crosby); "Listen, My Children" (sung by Martha Raye); "Swan Waltz" (instrumental); "It's On, It's Off" (reprise by Raye); "Double or Nothing," "Double or Nothing" (reprise/ sung by chorus); "Clarinet Virtuoso" (performed by Ames and Arno); "The Moon Got In My Eye" (reprise, sung by Crosby); The Calgary Brothers Comedy Act (performed by Steve and Andre Calgary) followed by them singing "The Moon Got In My Eye," "After You" (sung by Frances Faye, Martha Raye, Bing Crosby and Harry Barris) and "It's the Natural Thing to Do" (reprise by Crosby). Of the Crosby tunes, the ones that come off best are "It's the Natural Thing to Do" and "The Moon Got In My Eye," with the latter beautifully performed instrumentally by a sing and humming band of twenty voices in the place of an orchestra. A novel idea. On the funny side, Martha Raye, a burlesque dancer, finds herself unable to control herself by doing a striptease act every time she hears the music to "It's On, It's Off," and at one point, continues to sing under the bubbles while submerging under water during a police raid. For the finale in the night club variety act comes the jive singing of Frances Faye and Martha Raye to the tune "After You." With their last names sounding alike (Faye and Raye), so does their loud vocalizing.

The supporting players include: Benny Baker as The Sailor; Fay Holden as Martha Sewell Clark; Walter Kingsford as Dobson; Gilbert Emery as Mitchell; John Gallaudet as Johnny Rutherford; and Harry Barris, (a familiar face in numerous Crosby musicals, mainly because he was part of his "Rhythm Boys" singing trio in his early days), playing an orchestra leader. Resident Hollywood drunks Charles Irwin and Arthur Housman can be seen briefly in the golf course scene, which is highlighted by Martha Raye opening her big mouth, belting out a giant cry that stops her short when a flying golf ball enters her mouth, causing her to swallow it.

Bing Crosby and his doll-faced blonde co-star, Mary Carlisle, make a fine on-screen couple. First paired in COLLEGE HUMOR (1933), they reunited for the third and final time in DOCTOR RHYTHM (1938), in which Andy Devine, who appears in DOUBLE OR NOTHING, appears with them once more.

The story used in DOUBLE OR NOTHING appears to be more interesting than the somewhat overlong musical and comedy acts performed in the night club sequence shortly before the close of this 94 minute production, but the good tunes, lavish sets and fine performances keep this from being just another mediocre musical. Rarely seen in recent years, it's worth rediscovering again. (***)

The film begins with some lawyers walking about town deliberately dropping wallets and purses so that someone will find them. Each is filled with $100 and an address. Four folks return the money and the four are invited to the reading of a very eccentric will. They will each be given $5000 and the first to double this HONESTLY will become heir to a $1,000,000 fortune. And, if none of them can double the money within 30 days, then the money goes to the dead man's brother and his family.

The brother, not surprisingly, is NOT happy about this scheme but instead of voicing his anger towards the four, he convinces his family to pretend to want to help them. He tells them that he doesn't need or want the money and asks them all to dinner. And, in turn, the family convince several of them to invest in stupid money-losing schemes. The problem is that the daughter (Mary Carlisle) starts to feel sorry for them--particularly Lefty (Bing Crosby).

The same DVD that contains "Double or Nothing" also contains "Waikiki Wedding". Both are Bing Crosby films and both feature Martha Raye prominently. I was NOT thrilled to see this, as Raye's brash manner is the opposite of Crosby's gentle image. Additionally, her singing is also the opposite--making up for her lack of a decent voice by increasing her volume--whereas Crosby was smooth made his songs seem natural and likable. As a result, practically every scene with her seemed like a chore to watch and greatly detracted from an otherwise pleasant story. Because of this, the film loses a few points. It also loses a few points for the final portion of the film--with too many weird review acts as well as a finale that in mindblowingly weird (such as the 'sing band') and impossible--especially with only $5000 to spend!

Bing Crosby croons his way effortlessly through this little romp, while Martha Raye and Andy Devine provide the comedy, cloyingly at times. The plot, intriguing if not original, involves a dying millionaire who instructs his lawyers to drop twenty-five wallets containing a $100 bill on the streets of New York City in order to find honest people who will attempt to return them to their owner. Each winner is then given $5,000, and the first one to double that money within 30 days will receive the entire estate: $1 million. The plot is frequently interrupted by musical interludes, since Crosby plans to double his money by opening a nightclub.

... from Paramount Pictures and director Theodore Reed. When an eccentric millionaire dies, his will instructs his executors to plants purses and wallets containing $100 around the city. Anyone who returns the items to the address enclosed gets to participate in the next aspect of the will. They are each given $5000 in cash and have one month to double the amount through any reputable means (which excludes "gambling and speculation"). The first one to do so inherits the entirety of the deceased's estate, valued at over $1 million. If none of the people can double their money, then the deceased's cynical brother inherits it all. Only 4 people return the initial $100: singer Lefty (Bing Crosby), businessman John (William Frawley), layabout Half-Pint (Andy Devine), and obnoxious showgirl Liza Lou (Martha Raye). While the four try to double their money, the brother (Samuel S. Hinds) and his family try to stop them from succeeding. Also featuring Mary Carlisle, Benny Baker, William Henry, Fay Holden, Bert Hanlon, Gilber Emery, William Kingsford, and John Gallaudet.

Bing sings several songs, Martha Raye sings a couple, and there's a lengthy nightclub act sequence near the end, including a humorous slapstick dance from Ames & Arno. The cast is appealing, although Raye can be like nails on a chalkboard, which I know is intentional, but at times she's too successful. This is a pleasant time-waster, but nothing memorable.