User reviews

A sedate thriller built upon the insecurities of the newly emergent white-collar class, Strange Bargain offers solid production values and brisk direction. Jeffrey Lynn (who looks like a solution of Ray Milland and Bruce Bennett) is a hard-working family man who earns his keep as an accountant. One morning when the milk bill comes due he screws up his courage to ask for a raise; when he does, his boss tells him that the firm's at the brink of bankruptcy, and lets him go. But wait -- there's more! The boss plans to kill himself but make it look like murder so his wife can collect the insurance; for helping, he offers Lynn $10-grand. Lynn tries to prevent the suicide but arrives too late, finding his boss already dead. Enter a police detective (Harry Morgan) whose instincts tell him all is not as it seems (not only to him, but to us as well). Morgan aside, you're not likely to recognize any of the cast, but the story works itself out neatly and holds your interest. Too polite and middle-class to be true noir, Strange Bargain nontheless delivers what it promises.

When JEFFREY LYNN had to leave his career during WWII for the armed services, it seemed to cut into whatever momentum he had built up at Warner Brothers. By the time he did STRANGE BARGAIN for RKO, his dwindling career wasn't exactly in high gear. Nevertheless, he gives a good performance here as a man unwillingly caught up in a chain of events that almost lands him in a great deal of trouble.

He's an assistant bookkeeper at a law firm that is going through hard times. On the day that he gets up enough courage to ask for a raise, he's told that because of all the cuts being made, he has to be let go. His boss, however, has a strange bargain to make with him and that's the nub of the story without giving any more of the plot away.

MARTHA SCOTT is fine as his loving wife who never suspects anything is wrong until she makes a certain discovery. HARRY MORGAN is the detective who knows something isn't quite right when Lynn's boss is found not a victim of suicide, as had been planned, but a victim of murder. KATHERINE EMERY, an interesting actress who had been used well in THE LOCKET, has a pivotal role as the dead man's widow but plays the role so stiffly that it's not easy to believe the film's ending.

It's a story that catches interest from the start and maintains that suspense throughout. JEFFREY LYNN, never an actor given to much emotion, is calm and stalwart as the innocent victim of circumstances beyond his control.

A B-film worth catching if you can.

Assistant bookkeeper Sam Wilson (Jeffrey Lynn) can't make ends meet for himself, his wife, and two children, so he goes to his boss Mr. Jarvis asking for a raise. Instead of a raise he finds out from Jarvis that he is going to be let go shortly because the firm cannot afford him. It is then that Jarvis tells Wilson that he is broke and that, rather than see his wife and son destitute, he intends to kill himself so that they can collect the insurance money - 250K. But he needs Sam's help to cover up the suicide so that it looks like a murder/robbery so that the insurance will pay off. In return he will give Sam ten thousand dollars. Sam refuses.

The following night Jarvis calls Sam anyways and tells him the password for the suicide he plans to commit. Sam races over to his house to try and stop him, but he is too late. Jarvis is dead on the floor. So, realizing it is too late to stop the suicide, seeing the 10K on the desk, and reading Jarvis' written plea to Sam to help him cover the suicide, he decides that not helping him now will do no good, and so he does make it look like a robbery, takes the 10K, and throws the gun into the bay. What Sam doesn't realize is that everything he has just done not only makes it look like a murder, it makes it look like a murder he could have committed.

Besides the rather clever plot and red herrings thrown all over the place for such a short B feature with no A list stars, this is really a museum piece of post war middle class life and even business values of the time. The USA is headed into HUAC/Red Scare land at this point, so time is taken to show the Wilson family praying before eating, there is talk of going to church like it would ordinarily be a weekly event, and note that even people who had desk jobs worked half a day on Saturday at this point in time. As for business values, Mr. Jarvis knows his employees and they know him. Even down to Sam the assistant bookkeeper for twelve years - Jarvis couldn't have found him THAT valuable to keep him in a lower level position all of that time.

Harry Morgan plays Lt. Webb, a police detective whose only job at this point is to find Jarvis' murderer. He even comes to Jarvis' company and fingerprints all of the employees! I can't believe if someone like workaday cog in the machine Sam had been murdered there would have been much more than a police report. Since Morgan has been playing lots of bad guys and moral cowards up to this point in time, quite a bit of unlikability bleeds into his performance to where I want somebody to drag him away by that cane of his.

Finally I have to give Jeffrey Lynn his due. He carries off being the central character in this film very well, often just telegraphing his feelings by posture and facial expression, particularly when he comes across Jarvis' suicide scene. This is time well spent at just over an hour.

An interesting note about this movie: The TV Series "Murder, She Wrote" produced a "sequel" to it in a 1987 episode, "The Days Dwindle Down," (episode # 3.21). Several actors, including Harry Morgan, reprise their roles. Jessica Fletcher re-solves the original crime by interviewing several of the original characters some 30 years after the fact (actually closer to 40 years!). The episode makes nice use of scenes from the original movie as flashbacks to explain the plot. Imagine the surprise of watching a typical MSW episode about an old murder, and then a 34-year-old Harry Morgan suddenly pops up in B&W interviewing the same (though younger) witnesses about the same murder!

What's neat about 1949's Strange Bargain is that on an episode of Murder, She Wrote, some of the cast returned for a sequel, during which Jessica tries to get to the bottom of the case. The film solved the case, but for the Murder, She Wrote episode, "The Days Dwindle Down," they added another twist to what we saw.

Anyway, it was a good idea because the film was used in flashbacks. The returning stars were Martha Scott, Jeffrey Lynn (who had long ago left show business and made a fortune in real estate) and Harry Morgan.

In the film Strange Bargain, Jeffrey Lynn plays Sam Wilson, an assistant bookkeeper at a company that is going under. He and his wife, Georgia (Scott) are having trouble making ends meet. With the encouragement of his wife, Sam goes in to ask for a raise and learns then that he's fired. Later on, as he's leaving, his boss, Mr. Jarvis (Richard Gaines) asks him to have a drink.

Jarvis admits that he's gone through the $500,000 his father left him (the equivalent of about 4 million today), and he is basically broke. He plans on killing himself and making it look like murder so his wife (Katherine Emery) can collect his $250,000 insurance policy; with double indemnity, that makes $500,000. He's going to set it up as a robbery. He will call Sam and give him a signal, and he wants Sam to come to his home then and remove the gun and dump it in the river. For that, he'll leave Sam $10,000 in the open safe.

Sam refuses to help him and attempts to talk Jarvis out of it, but he won't be swayed. Sam still refuses to help.

However, Jarvis calls him and gives the signal. Sam pleads with him to wait until he can get there and talk to him, but he's too late. He removes the gun and the money.

The police (Harry Morgan and Walter Sande) start an investigation and hone in on Jarvis' partner, Timothy Hearne (Henry O'Neill). Sam insists that Hearne couldn't have done it, but he's afraid that the man will be arrested.

This is a pretty good film. Lynn's career never recovered after World War II - he was a pleasant enough actor, and still made occasional TV appearances even after he left. Katherine Emery always reminds me of Mercedes McCambridge.

Watch it with the Murder She Wrote episode which you can stream.

Sam Wilson (Jeffrey Lynn) is a well respected Christian man, residing in an attractive middle class neighborhood. He has a responsible job, plus an adoring wife and family. Unfortunately, financial issues are threatening to turn suburban bliss into suburban blues.

On the very day that this meek, mild-mannered male musters sufficient courage to request a raise, his boss (Richard Gaines) offers him an unexpected windfall, provided that he is prepared to be the pivotal figure in a bizarre murder/suicide insurance scam. Will Lynn, the archetypal shrinking violet, shrink from violence?

Following Gaines suspicious death, cantankerous colleague, Henry 'O Neill is the investigation's centre of interest, but the shudder at his own shadow, wouldn't say boo to a goose Lynn also comes under the microscope of diligent, disabled detective and local celebrity, Harry Morgan, respected for a war record superior to anything that Glenn Miller ever released.

At an efficient, in-BANG-out 68 minutes Strange Bargain ought to have been fairly flab free, but there are moments of unnecessarily leaden footed talkiness along the way. With injury time approaching, the movie finally wriggles free from its inertia and hits pay dirt, courtesy of a couple of nifty plot twists and some eyebrow raising surprises.

Fun, low budget noir that clocks in at just slightly over an hour. Typical suburban based noir where one bad decision leads to another which leads to trouble

Competent acting, a mellow but competent script with a number of plot twists is hampered only slightly by pedestrian cinematography and lighting. Given the short running time, they wrapped the story up neatly and squeezed it all in to make this an easy watch. The plot includes murder, suicide, implied corporate greed, insurance fraud, tough cops, a tough broad, a loving husband/father caught up in the mess, and all the typical characters.

Richard Gaines (Jarvis) really sucks at running a company. Not only that but he has also blown his inheritance. Now he's feeling guilty and is prepared to kill himself in order to provide for his wife Katherine Emery (Mrs Jarvis) and his son. He hatches a plan to kill himself but it must look like murder if his family is to benefit from his life insurance, so he asks employee Jeffrey Lynn (Sam Wilson) to help him with his pre-planned actions. Lynn gets reluctantly caught up in the plan but is all as it seems? Harry Morgan (Lt Webb) arrives on the scene with his cane to sort things out.

The best part of the film comes near the beginning as Jeffrey Lynn politely asks his boss Gaines for a pay rise and is promptly told that he is sacked. Wow. That was pretty harsh. But pretty funny. The story moves along at a good pace but it does, unfortunately, involve an annoying child in the form of Michael Chapin (Roddy), who demonstrates everything that is annoying about children - his language "Gee this" and "Gee that" and "Dad, you're a card" - aaaargh, shut up you brat. Martha Scott (Mrs Wilson) also has a peculiar character. She starts off as a homely mother who suddenly undergoes a character change to become a busy-body who wants to poke her nose and interfere in the lives of others that she doesn't know. It doesn't ring true and she definitely does not merit top billing in the film.

Overall, there is enough of a story to keep you watching and it's quite enjoyable trying to work out who-dunnit.

Don't mistake brevity and low budget for lack of quality. This movie is very well scripted and conceived. Harry Morgan gives a terrific performance as the policeman and Jeffrey Lynn is appropriately perplexed as the devoted husband who suddenly finds himself holding the bag when he is tricked by his boss into an ill-fated endeavor. Martha Scott is marvelous as his well-grounded wife. Strange Bargain is well-paced and well-acted throughout.

Interestingly, this later served as a basis for a Murder She Wrote episode with Jeffrey Lynn, Martha Scott, and Harry Morgan recreating their roles. It actually makes for a fascinating "sequel."

Picture Ward Cleaver or the Robert Young character in "Father Knows best" in deep trouble. That's what we're shown here, with always handsome Jeffrey Lynn as the suburban dad.

The title bargain is his boss's asking him to help him make a suicide look like murder so that he (the boss) can leave insurance money for his family.

Hey! This doesn't figure in the softball and charity meetings of this town! Nor does Lynn's having, before this, been laid off by the boss.

Katherine Emory is excellent as the not so very grieving widow. Harry Morgan is just fine as a police detective who walks leaning on a cane. And Martha Scott is superb as Mrs. Jeffrey Lynn: She's most famous for her touching portrayal of Emily in "Our Town." but she had fa greater depth, as shown most notably in her magnificent performance in "So Well Remembered" a couple years before this little charmer came out.

Ah, for the days when local television showed low budget movies like this to fill up time. Now we have to wait fore them to appear out of nowhere on Turnwer Classics or be programmed at places like the Film Forum here in New Yiork. After all: What self-respecting person what want to waste a plasma TV on a black and white movie?!

I enjoyed this film. It wasn't the best, but interesting enough to hold my attention. The plot was a bit unique, but the writing was clean and the acting was fairly good. The suspense could have been built up a bit better, but like I said, still good enough to hold my attention.

Jeffrey Lynn and Martha Scott can't make ends meet on his salary, what with two children, so he asks boss Richard Gaines for a raise. The firm, however, is bankrupt, like Gaines. Gaines makes hm a counter-offer. He has an insurance policy worth half a million dollars. He plans to commit suicide, but the insurance company won't pay off. If Lynn will remove the gun, there's $10,000 in cash for him. Lynn says no, then changes his mind. But as homicide detective Harry Morgan investigates, Lynn feels the walls closing in.

Good performances, a good script, and cinematographer Harry Wild struggle with bland direction by Will Price. There is also a cop-out ending and at least one major plot hole. I'm not the only one to think so. Almost thirty years later, Murder She Wrote reunited Lynn, Morgan, and Miss Scott is a sort of sequel to this movie, in which Lynn was convicted of the murder, and Miss Fletcher is hired to reopen the case.

For any Murder She Wrote fans, this movie may be familiar. It was the main feature for an episode entitled 'The Days Dwindle Down', aired in April of 1987. Jeffrey Lynn, Harry Morgan and Martha Scott resurrected their roles for the episode. I have yet to see the movie, however after seeing this episode, I am now intrigued to see what the movie was actually like.

(1949) Strange Bargain CRIME DRAMA

It has wife, Georgia Wilson motivating her husband, Sam Wilson as assistant bookkeeper with two children to ask his boss, Malcolm Jarvis for that raise. Upon his arrival, he accidentally stumbles onto an argument between his boss and second man to take the leader position, Timothy Hearne. We then find out that the firm Sam is currently working for is losing money and that his boss, Malcolm Jarvis had made plans to put Sam Wilson on the cutting block. Upon catching Sam walking home, his boss, Mr. Jarvis offers him a ride home, but before he drops him home, he tries to entice him to do a favor for him for 10,000. And that is to make Malcolm Jarvis's death appear to look like a murder after he takes his own life by means of suicide. For the purpose so that his wife, Edna Jarvis and his teenage son, Sidney Jarvis are able to collect a $250,000 life insurance policy as it would not qualify if the death happened by suicide. By the time Sam walks home, he is then interrupted by phone call as he was trying to settle down as he refused to be a part of this scheme. Sam's boss, Malcolm then phones him attempting to tell him that everything is set up, only then Sam tries to talk him out of it. By the time Sam shows up to Malcolm's house, for the purpose of stopping him from doing this, he then finds him already dead. During his arrival, is an envelope addressed to him with 10,000, and because of the direction's Sam remembered, he had to fire two rounds through the window before disposing the gun into the water. At this point, one can assume that Malcolm had took his own, except that there was no indication that was exactly what happened.

Although not Evident at the Time (1949) this has an Eerie Feel of a TV Sitcom in Bizarro Land. All the Trappings are there, Suburban Family of Four with Mom, Dad, One Boy, and One Girl. They Gather Round the Breakfast Table and Talk about what the Day has In Store. Mom Cooks and Dad Reads the Paper. It's All so Quiet and Reassuring. But Wait.

This isn't a TV Sitcom, that would be in a Few Years, and this isn't Springfield. Because Dad's Assistant Accounting Job doesn't Pay Enough to Support this Nuclear Family, there is Financial Strife. Mom tells Dad to ask for a Raise. He does and then is Fired.

Then Things Spiral out of Control with a Payoff to Dad for a Little Help Pulling off a Suicide by His Boss to Collect the Insurance for His Family. Enter Super-Cop, Ex-OSS Officer Harry Morgan who is a Police Chief with a Shattered Leg (what?) and He is not so Convinced it's Suicide. Uh Oh, Dad gets Nervous.

This isn't a Bad Little B-Movie from RKO and is Well Acted with Enough Mystery to Keep it Going for just Over an Hour. Nothing too Special Except the Beneath the Surface Financial Struggle of the Post-War Suburban Family that by Most Accounts were Supposed to be in Boom Times. Or so We were Told.

But Not if You Looked Closely at Film-Noir and Other Cutting Edge Truth Tellers. Bring on the 1950's and Everybody Don't Worry Be Happy, and if there be Any Doubt, Watch the Sitcoms.

A tidy film noir (running 68 minutes) from 1949. An assistant bookmaker, Jeffrey Lynn, is trying to make ends meet so instead of getting the raise he just asked for from his boss, Richard Gaines, he instead gets let go due to the poor performance of the company but there may be an opportunity to make some dough if he comes to see him later tonight at his home. Flash forward to the meeting & Gaines has laid out a plan to off himself & w/the insurance money take care of his wife, Katherine Emery & son, Raymond Roe & all Lynn has to do is fire the shot from outside the window & get paid 10K for his troubles. Of course best laid plans never come to pass as the night in question Lynn finds Gaines dead in his den already so he has to think as fast as he can to rectify things as the police, led by Henry Morgan, come into the picture setting off an investigation & Lynn is in the crosshairs. Even Lynn's wife, Martha Scott, fears the worst when she finds his 10K hidden away in a closet but the real poop hits the fan as the true reveal of the killer comes about w/poor Lynn about to get his at gunpoint. The briskness of the exercise works wonders but the detriment in the acting & the lackluster lensing leaves this firmly on the sidelines w/better known noir fare like Double Indemnity stealing the spotlight in a similar told tale.

I love a good plot twist, and "Strange Bargain" delivers one that I did not see coming.

Jeffrey Lynn gives a really good performance as a clenched, strait-laced suburban husband and father whose boss ropes him into a scheme to help his suicide look like murder in exchange for a pay off. A running theme in the film is financial desperation -- all of these guys trying to live up to the American dream and finding that it's too expensive.

This is one of those noirs with a protagonist who's not cut out for the mess he's landed himself in, and watching him dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole is like watching a car accident in slow motion.

And then there's that plot twist that had me tipping my hat and saying "well played, sir" to my television.

In the world of film noir, this one is much more on the modest side of the enjoyment scale, but it's fun.

Grade: B+

Because it's only 68 minutes and has no Big stars or director, it's a B film, but it's better than many an A film that it shared billing with. The story, though lacking suspense, is engrossing, and Lynn, Scott, and Morgan are superb. The best part of the movie for me was seeing suburban family life in 1949. Lynn and Scott are happily married and have 2 happy children. Scott volunteers at church and Lynn says grace before meals. But their happy home is threatened because Lynn's salary is insufficient to support a wife and 2 school-age children. Scott tells Lynn to ask for a raise, after all, he's been with the company for 12 years (he didn't serve 4 years in WW2?) The option of Scott getting a job occurs to neither of them, but then, this was years before the feminist revolution.

The script is excellent. Dialogue supports characterization so that we 'know' all of these people. I liked Lynn. He's a decent man, one who on the spur of the moment makes the wrong choice. His mistake in judgment ensnares him in a tightening web of trouble. I liked Scott, who exemplifies the perfect mate. I liked Morgan, who always gets his man, but who makes sure that he gets the right one. The ending is a surprise, though once revealed, seems obvious. I liked the director's touch at the finish of having Morgan's cane disarm the murderer just in the nick of time. In fact, I liked everything about this little B film.

This is a dull film with charmless leads. It was a waste of time to make, let alone watch. It breaks the first rule of noir: there must be a treacherous femme fatale to induce the protagonist to the dark side. This film is mostly filler with dull scenes of family life and detectives going in circles. The ending simplistic to the point of being amateurish. There us little drama and no suspense. You just sit and wait for something to happen. This short B film feels three hours long.

A financially struggling family man (Jeffry Lynn) gets involuntarily involved in the apparent suicide of his boss (Richard Gaines), a failure as a business man, who has lost all of his inheritance, and whose accounting firm is rapidly going bankrupt. When his body is found in the library of his swank Beverly Hills mansion, it looks like a murder, which is what Gaines supposedly wanted, in order for his life insurance money to go to his social-climbing wife (Katherine Emory), whose performance is worth watching, and son. The strong point of the film is Lynn's character's anguish, now leading a double life of sorts as he has to keep everything a secret from his wife (Martha Scott) and two kids. His performance is not half bad, and makes watching the film worth the effort. Henry Morgan's part as a tough wounded WW2 vet and now a star LAPD detective who walks around with a cane is undermined by too many one-liners, although he and Lynn's son (Michael Chapin) make a few references to the gas chamber, letting us know what whoever does get caught will be facing.

"Strange Bargain" is a movie with a plot that is pretty difficult to believe, though it is still quite enjoyable and worth your time.

Sam Wilson (Jeffrey Lynn) goes to his boss to request a raise. After all, he'd been with the company many years and he and his family were having a hard time making ends meet. But what happens next was right out of left field. Instead of the raise, the boss fires him...telling Wilson that the company was about bankrupt and they couldn't afford to keep him even without the raise! However, the boss asks Sam to join him for a drink later...and that's when things start to get really strange. During this drink, the boss reveals just how bad things are. It seems not only the company is bankrupt, but he is as well and he saw only one way out...suicide! And, that way insurance money would provide for his family...if they could convince the insurance folks it wasn't suicide. If Sam agreed, the boss was going to kill himself and Sam would then come in and get rid of the gun and make it look as if he was murdered. What's next? Well, certainly NOT what you'd expect.

As I have said, the plot is hard to believe. But it also is exquisitely written and worked well. Lynn's 'everyman' performance helped carry the idea over, and the direction was fine. Overall, this is far more than you'd expect from a B-movie.