THE INSIDE STORY (1948)

This eighty-seven-minute comedy opens with text about a small town's Uncle Ed, played by Charles Winninger, who suggests every town has one—a lovable but absent-minded inn clerk possessed by “knock-knock” jokes. He has a habit of wearing his eyeglasses on the top of his head, and his poor eyesight is a reminder of where he left them. The opening has Winninger entering a bank to access government bonds in his safe deposit box. A friend arrives in the vault. Both men have different views about hoarding or spending money. Winninger tries to persuade him to invest in government bonds and circulate his money. Though set in 1948, the balance of the film flashes back to 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression as Winninger recalls the "inside story" of one confusing day due to his error handling a thousand dollars. The script stumbles at a couple of points, but overall, a delightful little film.

The story is by Ernest Lehman and Geza Herczeg, and the snappy screenplay is by the team of Mary Loos and Richard Sale. Directed and produced by Allan Dwan, the film was distributed by Republic Pictures. The score was written by Nathan Scott, father of the legendary producer, composer, and saxophonist, Tom Scott. The Depression-era story addresses President Roosevelt's declaration of an eight-day "bank holiday" (closings) with the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 to avoid customer withdrawals. In the case of this film, however, it involves the misplacement of a thousand dollars that changes its location.

William Lundigan plays a struggling artist (cliché intended). He is stressed about making a decent living to support his fiancée, Marsha Hunt. He owes a thousand dollars to her father, Gene "Bulldog" Lockhart, owner of a local inn. Lockhart loathes the artist's feast-or-famine career pursuit. It initiates his overstepping the bounds of character exaggeration. The frequency becomes a bit out of place in a film of subtle humor, more in keeping with a screwball comedy. Lundigan and Hunt made one of the most attractive on-screen couples in Hollywood with this film.

While attending to an insurance salesman, Roscoe Karns, Winninger mindlessly puts his thousand dollars in the wrong envelope—addressed to Lundigan—into the safe. The insurance money is meant for a local farmer, Tom Fadden, when he arrives. Karns does his typical rapid-fire delivery as a wisecracking womaniser with a trademark, wide-eyed double-take after a verbal smackdown. He is frightened by the mere mention of conflict. Lockhart later finds the money in the safe and mistakenly thinks it was payment for Lundigan's painting. He claims the cash to pay off his debt to local merchant, Will Wright, who in turn pays what he owes the building's owner, the headstrong Florence Bates. Winninger wonders how to rectify the predicament. Into the mix are two bootleggers, one an expert safecracker, Allen Jenkins, along with his low-IQ partner, William Haad. They are tempted to open the safe after Winninger asks them to protect it. This would explain to the police how the money "disappeared." This makes no sense. He knows the money is not there. Jenkins easily opens the safe, but refuses to look inside because, as an honorable thief and not acting on temptation, he gave his word to protect the money. By looking inside, Jenkins could not be accused of stealing anything. Nevertheless, Jenkins and Haad provide some periodic laughs in the film.

Another script fumble, out of place from all this humorous confusion, is handsome Robert Shayne's over-the-top mental breakdown for his inability to provide a living for his wife, Gail Patrick. In an angry tirade, he storms off to his office. Like some lawyers, he keeps a revolver in his top desk drawer just in case. He is considering suicide. Enter Bates, who prevents (postpones?) his decision by giving the grand to him. Shayne is instantly beside himself with joy. I suspect he is bipolar. Patrick then uses the money to pay Lundigan for the portrait she's gifting her husband. So Karn's money goes full circle, passing between six people who all need exactly one thousand dollars. What are the odds? Perfect timing for Karns to pay farmer Fadden, who enters before the film ends.