User Reviews

Mildly interesting now - that's the best to say about this odd series of shorts made in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. It is watched now because in some of the early episodes one catches glimpses of future mega-stars on the rise (Robert Taylor popped up as an embezzler in one of them in the late 1930s). But the spirit of these episodes works against them now. We like to think crime never pays, but given how a thug may become a celebrity in the U.S. or abroad, or how many criminals seem to get away with their crimes (remember O J, or Harry Thaw?) we can really question the total value of the series. I find the real interest in looking at the various scams and crimes they present...but that is a personal view of a criminal historian.

This particular episode dealt with the con-games of fake spiritualists. Arthur Shields sets up a scam in a small town, and with his assistants he fools people who come to him into believing he is able to communicate with the dead. As long as the money comes in he will produce fake results, but once the money dries up he slams the door.

Ann Shoemaker is married to Frank Reicher. Their son is a missing in action G.I. Shoemaker keeps going to Shields to try to keep in touch with the boy, whom she gets "messages" from through Shields, but always they fade out just before the end. So she comes back, spending more money and getting her hopes up higher and higher. Finally she has gone through the savings of herself and Reicher, and Shields slams the door on her. She tells Reicher and then walks in front of a car.

Shields at first does not concern himself, but he is warned that the police (Crane Whitley) are observing him. He begins to plan to flee, but his nervous behavior raises the suspicions of his assistant and partner (Harry Hayden - who usually appeared in Preston Sturges comedies like "Christmas In July" and "The Great McGinty"). He returns to his office and is confronted by Hayden whom he fights and shoots. But before he leaves he suddenly finds Reicher is there too, and ends up shooting him as well. By the time he has finished the second killing Whitley shows up with the police. We subsequently see that Shields was hanged for the double murder.

If you believe in such neatly packaged justice (for all except the unfortunate Reicher and Shoemaker) than you would swallow this. Somehow I just don't think successful grifters would collapse so easily (although occasionally they do - look at the celebrated "Yellow Kid" Weill, possibly America's most creative con-man, and (I believe) the model for Paul Newman's "Harry Gondorf" in THE STING - Weill did end up a prisoner, and a pauper, though he wrote an interesting book of memoirs.). But it is curious to see Shields in a lead role (usually he was one of John Ford's "family" of character actors, his best known important parts being the intolerant little village tyrant in HOW GREEN WAS OUR VALLEY and the Protestant minister in THE QUIET MAN). So I found the film, despite my misgivings about it's "justice triumphant" message, worth watching, and gave it a "6" out of "10".

Every time I see a fortune teller or palm reader with their own shop, my disgust grows by miles. These are phony manipulators who depend on the vulnerability of the lost and confused, yet it is a legal profession that has been around in various shapes and forms for centuries. This Crime Does Not Pay short seems silly in today's hard-boiled society but it still creates an impact. An aging wife and mother is suckered into believing the claims of one if these alleged psychics who claims that her missing son is alive and well. Being just post war time, it is a cruel trick to play on a vulnerable woman, and even her husband seems to believe. All of the criminals in these shorts still exist in one way or another. I'd like to see how these shorts would present today's on-line crimes. Veteran character actress Anne Shoemaker will touch your heart as the bereaved mother whose faith stands the ear era until it us broken by these shysters.

. . . intones the PHANTOMS, INC. narrator. This prattling pontificator of the Groaning Lion Studio's "Crime Pays" series goes on to promise--tongue planted firmly in his cheek--that "No man is smart enough to outsmart the law." This bloviating bozo pretends not to realize that the fraudulent U.S. Constitution has a giant loophole big enough to fly Air Force One (or a B-17 bomber) through. All confidence men need do to BECOME THE LAW themselves is to lose a presidential election by four million votes, while having the Red Commie Russian KGB Kremlin launder enough cash through the National Trifle Association to bribe a few secretaries of state into turning Blue states Red, and viola--they're in like Flynn! Then they can appoint U.S. attorneys general to back up THEIR claims that the Constitution is chock full of "Fake" Emoluments Clauses, and start picking off citizens in broad daylight up and down 5th Ave. to their heart's content, since they will not lose a single vote among their Proletariat Base. PHANTOMS, INC. even pictures a coupe of the "core supporters" making up this basket of deplorable dupes who have signed on the dotted line with Old Scratch Off. Fittingly, these weak-minded victims are Gold Star parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kahn--no, make that the "Kennesons." Because Confidence Men, with their bogus "4F" heel spurs, always envy and hate service people with a vengeance, the Kennesons clearly are doomed. Had Dr. Trickster Trykel had the foresight to have himself planted in the White House as a KGB asset, his coast would have been totally clear.