Make a Million (1935)

★★★★ · Bums vs. bankers · picfixer · 2013-12-06

Engaging comedy about a young college professor's plan to end the Great Depression. Costars Charles Starrett and Pauline Brooks. James Burke has a major supporting role as a knight of the open road (hobo) who tries to teach Starrett how to panhandle. Fast-paced, breezy and fun. That the plan couldn't possibly work in real life doesn't interfere in the least. Okay video and audio. There are some missing frames. A total of two minutes are missing. FOOTNOTE: Dozens of plans to end the Depression were put forward, many of them by crackpots who in a different time might have been working on…

★★ · Slightly flat bill-filler · nenslo · 2011-09-23

Though this is a poverty row cheapie cranked out to fill a bill, it is not very accomplished and at times it gets a little tiresome, but it has some eccentric ideas I haven't seen elsewhere. In his efforts to make a million, the professor falls in with professional panhandlers and seeing them practice their routines and trying to find him a schtick to use was fairly entertaining. I also enjoyed seeing the brief explanation of hobo markings on mailboxes. There is some sociocultural and historical value to this, but overall the plot is not very challenging and the boy/girl element is pretty…

★ · Bad Script · tKC2012 · 2011-09-21

The professor of a university has an idea of making a million dollars! Exciting! But soon you find out that his idea is to run a Ponzi scheme. Stupid script. Our educated professor says, "if Govt ensures to but surplus, there can be no business failure". Yes, but hundreds of thousands would milk the Govt and stop making any effort to run their business. And soon the Govt would be a failure itself. This movie gives a headache after watching for 30 minutes.