Buy Me That Town

Rickey Dean (Lloyd Nolan) is only the type crook you see in old Hollywood comedies. Why? Well, he is a 'nice' crook...a crook with a heart of gold...or at least tin!

One day, Rickey's boss finds out he's being drafted into the military and he wants to find some way to weasel out of it....but can't. So, that means the gang is going to split up without its leader...that is, until Rickey comes up with a scheme. While traveling, he and his friend are pulled over for speeding and they learn that the town is broke. He also finds out that the town is for sale...and he buys it in order to create a haven for crooks. He plans on remodeling the jail into a country club for crooks...a place to hide out until things cool down. It's also a chance to shake down speeders! But, of course, there's more to it than this...and you'll have to watch to see what.

In many ways, this film reminds me of the great comedy "Larceny, Inc.". In each, a smart crook buys a business or a town with the intentions of doing illegal things...but ends up being an unintentional success. And, like "Larceny Inc.", it's a lot of fun.

This film is helped with an excellent cast of mugs playing the comedic gangsters...Sheldon Leonard, Warren Hymer, Eddie Brophy, and Albert Dekker.

Overall, a lot of fun...and one that really surprised me in a good way.

When Sheldon Leonard gets drafted, he shuts down his rackets. Lloyd Nolan and pal, washed-up boxer Albert Dekker go on a car trip, and get clipped by an unincorporated town for speeding. The town is on its last legs; the factory closed down and the company that holds all the mortgages is willing to sell out cheap. Nolan gets an idea and buys the town, using it as a hotel for crooks on the lam. Constance Moore, however, is willing to call in the Feds unless he spends money fixing up the place.

It's a nice gimmick comedy, helped by the usual gang of comic supports, including Richard Carle, Barbara Jo Allen, Eddie Brophy and so forth. Directed for efficiency by Eugene Forde, it's one of several 'reforming crooks' movies that were popular in the period. It's not a great one, but Nolan is always worth watching, and if you have a taste for movies of this age, you won't be disappointed.

This reminds me of the better known bigger budget "It All Came True" where gangster Bogie hides out in a board house, hoping to appropriate it for his own purpose, when in the end the board house occupants appropriate Bogie for their purposes.

Gangster Chink Moran (Sheldon Leonard), a gangster of the more violent style, is being drafted and will now be out of the hair of a gangster of more modern subtle ways, Rickey Deane (Lloyd Nolan). To celebrate having Moran out of his hair for a year or so, Deane decides to go out into the country with his pal and fellow gangster Louie for some fresh air and fishing. They are pulled over in a speeding trap on the way there, where the town judge exacts fines based on how rich he thinks the defendants are. He does this because the town is dying since the factory closed, and speeding tickets are the tax base.

Deane, the enterprising gangster, decides to buy the town when he learns it is for sale. He intends to get his friends that are under threat of indictment to speed through the town, get caught, refuse to pay the fine levied by the judge, and then keep them in jail for a few weeks for a thousand dollars a week to avoid more serious state and federal charges. That is the racket.

But the judge's daughter gets wise and forces Deane to spend a large amount of the money he collects on the town - a new fire engine, fresh paint, a new sewer system, etc. Then the feds show up and, given the build up to war going on and the town's new look, want to reopen the factory and put the town back to work. Deane would have a chance to go legitimate, but just then the more heavy handed Chink Moran appears back in circulation and wanting a piece of the action, and he is not civic minded either. Watch and find out what happens.

This is actually a screwball comedy with gangsters rather than a gangster film with screwball comedy elements. Deane's merry band seems completely harmless, and their interaction with the locals are hilarious. There is a boarding house landlady who is a big fan of the gangsters - she reads true crime magazines - and knows who they all are by name. Deane strikes up a romance with the judge's daughter, in spite of her arm twisting ways when it comes to Deane spending money on the town. This is probably one of Lloyd Nolan's most versatile roles since he gets to play tough guy and good guy, and both serious and funny. Made by refined Paramount, it seems more like an independent production with lots of lesser known players. I'd recommend it.

"Buy Me That Town" is comedy that now seems to be sadly locked away in Twentieth Century - Fox's film vault. Hopefully , it still exists, and will be rediscovered some day. The script was based on a Damon Runyon story about a racketeer, played by the always excellent Lloyd Nolan, who buys a bankrupt small town, in order to exploit it for taxes, and make it an asylum, or a safe haven for crooks needing protection from the law. Crooks, that is, willing to pay big bucks for that privilege! The local jail turns in quite a place. Bread and water is replaced champagne and steak. As the word gets around, felons from all over descend on the town for safety, and a darn good time. Of course, there are lots of complications, and this cozy relationship of housing big time criminals turns out to have negative aspects -- to say the very least! Eventually, the cynical Nolan turns in to a nice guy, and even brings in a war plant to revive the town's economy. A wonderful cast, and excellent direction from veteran Eugene Forde make this film a delight.

Like Disbarred I saw just before, it's a Paramount rarity and is a pleasant comedy in reform crooks with always unusual situations (ah the jails, the best). Can we think of some blue ray box with these entertaining forgotten gems? The entire casting is really funny and Lloyd Nolan is the special character of this rarity.