Strange Bargain - DaaVeeDee

Strange Bargain (DVD) (*)

$22.99

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
68 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1949 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Will Price

Written By:
Lillie Hayward
J.H. Wallis

Actors:
Martha Scott ..... Georgia Wilson
Jeffrey Lynn ..... Sam Wilson
Harry Morgan ..... Lt. Richard Webb
Katherine Emery ..... Edna Jarvis
Richard Gaines ..... Malcolm Jarvis
Henry O'Neill ..... Timothy Hearne
Walter Sande ..... Sgt. Cord
Michael Chapin ..... Roddy Wilson
Arlene Gray ..... Hilda Wilson
Raymond Roe ..... Sydney Jarvis
Robert Bray ..... Det. McTay

Synopsis:

Sam Wilson is having a hard time making ends meet. When he asks his boss for a raise, he finds out that the company is closing down and he'll be out of a job. His boss decides to commit suicide so that his family can benefit from his insurance. He asks Sam to help make it look like murder. Sam thinks he has convinced the boss not to commit suicide. But the boss does it anyway and Sam is framed for his boss's murder.

Urged by his wife Georgia, Sam Wilson, a financially strapped assistant bookkeeper at a Beverly Hills securities firm, asks his boss, Malcolm Jarvis, for a modest raise. Instead of granting Sam's request, Jarvis reveals that his company is going bankrupt and Sam, a twelve-year veteran, is losing his job. After work that day, Jarvis invites Sam for a drink and tells him that, because of his failed financial situation, he wants to commit suicide. Jarvis also wants his wife Edna and son Sydney to collect on his $250,000 life insurance policy, but knows they will have to forfeit the money if his death is ruled a suicide. To assure his family's security, Jarvis offers Sam $10,000 to help make his suicide look like a murder. Although Sam refuses to consider his boss's idea, Jarvis calls him that evening and tells him that he is going through with his plan. Sam begs Jarvis to reconsider, then rushes to his Beverly Hills home. In the Jarvis library, Sam finds his employer's dead body, a gun lying near his hand and an envelope addressed to Sam. Following Jarvis' earlier instructions, Sam makes the room appear as though a robbery had taken place, then using Jarvis' gun, fires two rounds through the library window. After Sam throws the gun off the Santa Monica pier, he returns home and nervously hides the cash-filled envelope in his bedroom closet. The next morning, Georgia reads about Jarvis' death in the newspaper and suggests to Sam that they visit Edna to offer their condolences. At the Jarvis house, homicide detective Richard L. Webb interrogates Timothy Herne, Jarvis' partner, who freely admits that he and Jarvis did not get along. Later, Mrs. Jarvis, who says she was at her beach house at the time of the murder, asks Sam to oversee the firm temporarily. Webb then questions Sam and, sensing his nervousness, orders a tail put on him. That night, Sydney tells Sam and Georgia that he had seen Herne quarreling with his father just before his death, but had said nothing about it to Webb because he was sure Herne was innocent. To Georgia's surprise, Sam advises Sydney to keep the matter to himself. Herne, who plans to revamp the firm with his own money, then offers Sam a promotion to head bookkeeper. At the police station, Webb learns that two different guns were used in the crime and that Jarvis had recently increased the amount of his insurance. Suspecting that he is involved in the matter, Webb orders Sam to accompany him to see Mrs. Jarvis, who states that she was unaware of the increase in coverage. Webb then forces Herne to admit that he saw Jarvis just before his death, and makes Sam admit that he witnessed a fight between Jarvis and Herne earlier that day. Sure that Herne is about to be arrested, Sam is overcome with guilt, and as he and Georgia, who earlier had found the $10,000, drive to the Jarvis house, he confesses all. While Georgia waits for him in the car, Sam gives Mrs. Jarvis the $10,000, telling her about his involvement in the murder. To his astonishment, Mrs. Jarvis reveals that she shot her husband after he seemed to be reneging on his agreement to kill himself. Using the same gun she used on her husband, Mrs. Jarvis then shoots Sam, intending to make his death look like another suicide. After her first shot only grazes Sam, Mrs. Jarvis prepares to fire again when Webb appears and knocks the gun from her hand. Having heard her admission of guilt, Webb arrests Mrs. Jarvis and tells a relieved Sam that he is free to go.

A bookkeeper in need of money agrees against his own better judgement to help a wealthy man carry out an elaborate suicide plan.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 28 May, 2014.

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