It's in the bag!
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | It's in the bag! |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Wallace |
| script |
Jack H. Skirball Jay Dratler Fred Allen Lewis R. Foster |
| production |
Nunnally Johnson for United Artists , Manhattan Productions |
| music | Werner R. Heymann |
| camera | Russell Metty |
| cut | William Morgan |
| occupation | |
| |
It's in the bag! is an American crime comedy directed by Richard Wallace from 1945. The film is based freely on the novel Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov , but the original is not mentioned in the opening credits.
action
Elderly millionaire Frederick Trumble is about to change his will and wants to bequeath his $ 12 million financial fortune to his unknown nephew, Fred Floogle. When he wants to secure the money, he is shot and a pistol is put in his hand, everything looks like suicide.
Meanwhile, Fred Floogle, an unsuccessful flea circus director, has problems himself. He has betting debts with the bookmaker Morty and his daughter Marion wants to marry Perry, the son of the rich Mr. Parker, with whom Floogle often argues.
When the newspaper reports on the legacy, everyone thinks of the 12 million. Fred's lifestyle changes: he sells his flea circus, moves the family into the penthouse of an expensive hotel, where the family lives in luxury, Monty offers him high betting credits. Perry also tells Marion about a mousetrap he invented with which he wants to earn money. A wedding is planned at the hotel in a few days. Mr. Parker offers Fred a $ 25,000 share in Perry's mousetrap.
When attorney Jefferson T. Pike and two business associates Trumbles read out the will, Eve and Fred learn that the 12 million are no longer there, the whole inheritance consists of a pool table and five chairs. The next day, the chairs are sold to the antique dealer Finnley for $ 300. Homer, the intelligent son of the Floogles, memorizes the shopper's names from a list, but when a fire breaks out in the store, the shock forgets them.
Detective Sully, who does not believe in the suicide, suspects Fred of the murder of Trumble because he was the sole heir. When Sully disappears, Fred receives a record with a personal message from Frederic Trumble, from which Fred learns that Trumble has hidden his remaining assets of $ 300,000 in one of the five chairs he left behind. The 12 million were stolen from him, the names of the swindlers are also hidden in the chair. Fred then tries everything to find the chairs.
As Homer recovered, he slowly remembers the names, also with the help of the mad psychiatrist Greengrass. There is one chair with Jack Benny, one in the cinema, two in a night club. A fatal scuffle begins in the search here. Fred is suspected again and goes to jail. There Fred learns from Mr. Pike that there was nothing in the chairs, like in the others, whereupon Fred realizes that Pike and his staff killed his uncle Trumble. Fred is released by Sully.
Fred finds the last chair at Bill Bendix's gang of gangsters, where he actually finds the $ 300,000 in it. He witnesses how the gang tries to kill Bill Bendix with the electric chair. When Bendix is pronounced dead, Fred is noticed and the gangsters force him to carry Bendix to the river. But when the gangsters are stopped by the police, Fred is suspected again. It turns out Bendix isn't dead thanks to a bulletproof vest. Together with Homer and Fred, they confront Pike and his staff with the accusation of murdering Frederic Trumble, who also confess to it.
At home with the money, Fred rejects the mousetrap. But the wedding is going on as planned.
background
The film begins with Fred Allen, the only actor who breaks through the fourth wall and speaks to the audience several times in the film (with the exception of Jack Benny in his scene and Sully and a lawyer at the end of the film). So he comments in the opening credits on the absurd idea of the opening credits (Why do you have to look at any names for 20 minutes? Who knows who these people are? Who cares? You can find such names in every telephone directory.). In the original script, he was supposed to comment on what was happening in the background, but the idea was not realized in the film.
The film was released on April 21, 1945, two and a half weeks before the end of World War II.
Web links
- It's in the bag! in the Internet Movie Database (English)