Million Dollar Weekend
Million Dollar Weekend
NR | 29 October 1948 (USA)
Million Dollar Weekend Trailers

A stock broker embezzles a million bucks and plans to take off to Shanghai. A number of obstacles stands in his path, however.

Reviews
Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
boblipton It seems as if the late 1940s was a time when every aging Hollywood pretty-boy star from the 1930s was trying to revitalize his career by film noir. MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND was Gene Raymond's attempt. He not only starred and co-produced, he directed it, and DP Paul Ivanov offers some noir touches almost immediately: when Raymond is confirming his airplane reservation, the desk clerk sits in a room well shadowed by Venetian blinds.Raymond leaves his brokerage office and takes that plane. First to Honolulu, for a brief stopover while waiting for his flight to Shanghai. On the way, however, he is waylaid by Osa Massen. She is being blackmailed by a smarmy Francis Lederer, who also steals Raymond's briefcase. This leads them back to San Francisco (where else for a film noir?) and revelations.Despite the film noir touches, for most of its length, it doesn't fit so neatly into the category. Mostly, it seems a tired retread, in which we are forced to guess what is going on, because everyone is keeping secrets. Then, just before the hour mark, Raymond and Massen tell each other what is going on, their hopes and failures, and it's clear that Mr. Raymond was not just another pretty face, but an actual actor.The movie didn't do well at the box office. It was released by Eagle-Lion, still working its way out of its PRC roots, and film noir was a drug on the market in 1948, even with topnotch talent at the height of its fame. Even so, it's a worthy addition to the genre, if only for that one scene, of two actors talking to each other about their human frailties.
Rob Cochran MILLION DOLLAR WEEKEND (1948) Stockbroker Gene Raymond embezzles $1 million from his company on a Friday and flees to Shanghai via plane. En route he encounters Frenchman Francis Lederer who is attempting to blackmail Patricia Shay, who has been accused of murdering her husband; the embezzler soon finds himself falling in love with her. Unfortunately, he's so preoccupied with her that he doesn't see the extortionist running off with his briefcase full of loot until it's too late. Following the crook back to San Francisco, he hopes to recover the cash before his boss discovers it missing come Monday morning. Produced and directed by lead actor Raymond (the mastermind head crook in PLUNDER ROAD) with a screenplay by Charles S. Belden (DOUBLE DEAL, THE STRANGE MR. GREGORY, BULLET SCARS, TEAR GAS SQUAD).
dbborroughs Good little thriller about a bored business man who decides to grab all of his company's bonds and make a break for the tropics. On the Plane to Hawaii he meets a young woman in distress who is being menaced by gentleman with a foreign accent who knows way too much about her. Over the course of the weekend romance blossoms as danger lurks. Yes this sort of thing has been done a hundred times before and since, and yes its been done both worse and better, but there is something to be said about a little film that tells its story neatly and efficiently. The performances and the twists this time out are all quite good and enough to suck you in and keep you watching for the films 70 odd minutes. Will you remember the film when its done? Probably not but then again if you're like me you'll put it into the keep pile so that somewhere down the road I can stumble aback over it and enjoy it all over again.
IAmTheRedDragon I have no idea why this is classified as a comedy on this site! There are no comedic elements to this film - it is in fact a quite dark, 'film noir'-ish drama, and a very good one.Quiet middle-aged businessman Nicholas Lawrence is fed up with his life and decides to embezzle his firm of a million dollars and flee to Shanghai. However, it becomes his misfortune to find himself seated with a dodgy pair of passengers on the plane: a beautiful young widow, Cynthia Strong, taking a trip to Hawaii to get away from it all after the untimely death of her husband, and tooth-clenchingly irritating Alan Marker, who has trailed her in an attempt to blackmail her by threatening to frame her for the murder of her husband.When Alan has to make a trip to the gents', Cynthia begs Nicholas to help her by pretending he's an old friend of hers whom they have just mutually recognised, in the hopes that Alan will take the hint and go away. However, he instead sticks himself to the both of them like glue for the entire stopover in Hawaii and makes life miserable, culminating in his stealing Nick's stolen million and hightailing it to San Francisco. Needless to say, Nick is not now able to continue on to his destination of Shanghai, but instead he and Cynthia go in pursuit of Alan.This is a very absorbing, well-acted dark drama with a sympathetic hero, a lovely and mysterious leading lady, and a memorably obnoxious villain (Francis Lederer, who played Alan, was the founder of the American National Academy of Performing Arts and apparently was still teaching acting up to the end of his life - so he certainly knew how to play a truly obnoxious bad guy).Very recommended film which should be better known - you can easily imagine Bogart and Bacall in the leading roles, and if that had been the case, I think this film would have been a well-known classic, but the actors who do star in this film carry off their parts very well.