Underplayed Gems

Smart Money (1931)

Smart Money poster
Directed by
Alfred Edward Green
Genre
drama film, crime film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 21m
Rated
NR
Rating
6.9 of 10 from 30 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A professional gambler runs a high-stakes card game and gets caught up with shady characters and a romantic interest. His friend tries to keep him out of trouble as the stakes get higher.

fast-pacedgrittytensepre-codeurbanatmosphericrough-edgedenergetic

What happens

Smart Money is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by Alfred E. Green, and starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. It is the only occasion Robinson and Cagney appeared in a film together, despite being the two leading actors, mainly portraying gangsters, at Warner Bros. studios throughout the 1930s. Smart Money was shot after Robinson's signature film Little Caesar had been released and during the filming of Cagney's breakthrough performance in The Public Enemy, which is how Cagney came to play a supporting role. The supporting cast includes Evalyn Knapp, Margaret Livingston (the "Woman from the City" in F. W. Murnau's 1927 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans), and an unbilled but prominently featured Boris Karloff, who portrayed the monster in Frankenstein later the same year. The writing team of Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson were nominated at the 4th Academy Awards in the now defunct Best Story category. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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