THE INSIDE STORY (1948)

In the small town of Silver Creek, Vermont, Charles Winninger, worried that in these post-war days, people are beginning to hoard money, tells us a kind of "Our Town" narrative set in 1933 when hoarding was in fashion because of the Depression. Our characters include inn keeper Gene Lockhart; his socially conscious daughter (Marsha Hunt); a struggling artist (William Lundigan) on whom Hunt has a crush; rich widow Florence Bates who runs the local mills, most of which have been shut down; and down-on-his-luck lawyer Robert Shayne and his wife Gail Patrick. Everyone needs money. Lockhart owes the local grocer who threatens to cut off his supply of food for his restaurant; Lundigan owes Lockhart months of back rent; the grocer owes money to Bates; Shayne is about to lose his business due to lack of clients; Patrick has been having her portrait done by Lundigan as a surprise gift to Shayne but can no longer afford to pay for it. In the midst of all these troubles, a courier (Roscoe Karnes) arrives at the inn to deliver $1000 to a farmer who is supposed to pick it up but is delayed due to his wife giving birth. When Karnes decides to leave the money in the inn's safe for the day, the escapades begin. Lockhart finds the money and assumes it's Lundigan’s back payment, so he gives it to the grocer, who gives it to Bates, who gives it to Shayne, and so on. To say nothing of the two shady characters who spend the afternoon at the inn, one of whom is a safe cracker.

This is a cute little comedy which was intended as propaganda telling citizens that it's in everyone's best interest if money is kept in circulation through banks, not hoarded. This message is fairly heavy-handed—the director, Allan Dwan, is no Frank Capra when it comes to making message movies—but it can be ignored and the movie can be enjoyed as a fun character-driven comedy with elements of melodrama (one off-screen character commits suicide and an on-screen character seriously contemplates it) and farce (a husband tries to catch his wife in an adulterous situation, but it's not what it seems). The cast mostly consists of very able supporting actors. The best here are the older ones (Lockhart, Winninger, Bates); if the younger bunch (including Lundigan, Hunt and Patrick) don't shine as much, they still give respectable performances. Allen Jenkins is fun as a friendly gangster and Will Wright gives the grocer a welcome hard edge. One interesting thread given the era: it's the women who prove more able and have to give the men a hand to get through their rough times. This doesn't show up much but is worth looking out for. Pictured are Hunt and Lundigan. [TCM]