Rosenberg's film is a contemporary Western comedy about Jim Kane, a good-natured, absurd1y naive, overly honest, bumbling Texas cowboy who owns a pickup truck on its last wheels, is behind in alimony and bank payments, and consistently makes bad bargains
Desperate for money, he goes to Mexico to bring back cattle for a rodeo supplier who's crooked, but whom the ever-trusting Jim likes
He does everything wrong, so his old pal Leonard (Lee Marvin) decides to he1p him Leonard's the opposite type: a showy, crafty, fancy-pants dude who dreams of getting rich, considers himself an authority on Mexicans and hustles everyone in sight
"Pocket Money" deliberately works against Newman's image; never before has he played such an ingenuous and inept loser Speaking with a high, nasal draw1, acting like an adolescent, looking constantly bewildered and wearing jeans that make him look bowlegged, he's rather funny if occasionally self-conscious
Marvin's part, with its clear, loud comedy, is showier; Newman mostly behaves quietly and tosses out flip lines At one point he is more animated, and irately tosses a TV set out of a motel window to get back at a man who's cheated them It's the new Western's equivalent of the old Western's cathartic showdown at high noona perfect, anti-heroic act of a modern anti-hero
Desperate for money, he goes to Mexico to bring back cattle for a rodeo supplier who's crooked, but whom the ever-trusting Jim likes
He does everything wrong, so his old pal Leonard (Lee Marvin) decides to he1p him Leonard's the opposite type: a showy, crafty, fancy-pants dude who dreams of getting rich, considers himself an authority on Mexicans and hustles everyone in sight
"Pocket Money" deliberately works against Newman's image; never before has he played such an ingenuous and inept loser Speaking with a high, nasal draw1, acting like an adolescent, looking constantly bewildered and wearing jeans that make him look bowlegged, he's rather funny if occasionally self-conscious
Marvin's part, with its clear, loud comedy, is showier; Newman mostly behaves quietly and tosses out flip lines At one point he is more animated, and irately tosses a TV set out of a motel window to get back at a man who's cheated them It's the new Western's equivalent of the old Western's cathartic showdown at high noona perfect, anti-heroic act of a modern anti-hero