THE INSIDE STORY (1948)

This eight-seven-minute comedy begins in 1948 with a voice-over 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, with consistent reminders of where to locate them. The live-action has Winninger entering a bank to place government bonds into his safe deposit box. Accessing funds is a friend. Both men have different views about hoarding or spending money. Winninger tries to persuade him to invest in government bonds and circulate his money. The balance of the film flashes back to 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression as Winninger recalls the "inside story" about one confusing day due to his error handling a thousand dollars.

The story is by Ernest Lehman and Geza Herczeg and the snappy screenplay by the team of Mary Loos and Richard Sale. It is a Depression-era story written when President Roosevelt declared 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 circulation of a thousand dollars that solves and creates problems.

William Lundigan plays a struggling artist (cliché intended). He is stressed about a decent living for supporting his fiancée, Marsha Hunt. He owes a thousand dollars to her father, Gene 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, not in keeping with a screwball comedy.

While attending to an inn guest, Roscoe Karns, Winninger mindlessly puts his thousand dollars in the wrong envelope—addressed to Lundigan—into the safe. Karn's insurance money is meant for a local farmer, Tom Fadden, when he arrives. Karns uses his typical rapid-fire delivery as a wisecracking womanizer with a trademark 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 paintings. He quickly changes his tune toward Lundigan in absurd fashion. 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, Florence Bates. The head-strong Bates in turn gives the money to an attorney, Robert Shayne, to cover waning legal fees. 

Speaking of over-the-top, Shayne is so distraught over not being able to make a living for his wife, Gail Patrick, he considers suicide. Bates prevents this with her visit to his office. Suddenly Shayne is beside himself with joy. I suspect he is bipolar. Patrick then uses the money to pay Lundigan for her portrait she's gifting her husband. So, amusingly, the money goes full circle, ending up with the artist, who then pays Lockhart, who gives it to Winninger to place in the safe. Perfect timing for Karns to pay farmer Fadden. Into the mix is are bootleggers, Allen Jenkins, and his dim-witted partner, William Haad, was tempted to steal the dough in the safe. But unknown to them, the safe is empty!

Note: The film has its implausibilities with the aforementioned over-the-top emotional swings and the fact that all six people owe or are paid exactly one thousand dollars. Winninger is the spark of the film. In true form is both lovable and exasperating. Hunt, Lundigan, and Shayne never looked better.