The Inside Story (1948) DVD-R

Starring Florence Bates, Hobart Cavanaugh, Tom Fadden, Frank Ferguson, William Haade
Directed by Allan Dwan

Print: black/white
Runtime: 87 min.
Genre: comedy

Few major directors made "small" films with such frequency and expertise than the ubiquitous Allan Dwan. Set in 1933, Dwan's The Inside Story tells the tale of a small Vermont town forced to tighten its belt during the Depression. When a wealthy visitor from New York places $1000 in the town's hotel safe, Horace Taylor (Gene Lockhart) the hotel's debt-ridden owner, "borrows" the money to pay off his creditors, intending to replace the cash once he's back on his feet. This act of larceny snowballs into a "collective crime," with everyone in town getting his or her hands on the money during the course of the story. By keeping the cash in circulation, the town manages to save itself from financial ruin -- but there's still that problem of getting the money back before the authorities find out. The husband-wife team of Richard Sale and Mary Loos scripted The Inside Story from an original screen treatment co-authored by former press agent (and future Hitchcock collaborator) Ernest Lehman.