Review of Pocket Money

Paul Newman pairs up with Lee Marvin in "Cool Hand Luke" director Stuart Rosenberg's lightweight but quirky contemporary western comedy "Pocket Money" with Strother Martin, Wayne Rodgers, and Hector Elizondo. This curious character study concerns a naïve but honest small-time livestock wrangler played by Newman who heads down to Mexico to round up rodeo cattle for a couple of shady types. Along the way, our simple-minded hero hooks up with his hard-drinking American friend played by Marvin who hangs out below the border. Together they encounter a series of hardships as Newman rounds up his cattle and brings them north to the border. Newman and Marvin make an odd couple in this innocuous movie that benefits from Laszlo Kovacs's first-rate cinematography. Pop music star Carole King warbled the title tune that came out on the flip-side of her 45 RPM release of "Sweet Seasons." The key to understanding "Pocket Money," which is entertaining but uneventful, is the writer. Terry Malick, before he acquired a reputation as an avant-garde director of "Badlands," "Days of Heaven," The Thin Red Line" and "The New World," penned the screenplay for this aimless but amiable saga from John Gay's adaptation of fifth generation Arizona cattleman Joseph Paul Summers Brown's novel "Jim Kane," published in 1960. Malick's screenplay ends suddenly and leaves you wondering what happened after watching this twosome tie into some nutcases for 102 minutes. Newman plays the kind of character who sometimes has to turn around in a complete circle before he can make up his mind about a decision. He speaks with a peculiar lisp. Indeed, he isn't the brightest bulb, but he is hopelessly honest to the point of lacking tact. At a carhop hamburger restaurant, Kane's ex-wife tells him that he is a 'baby,' in a none complimentary tone and that she cannot afford to hang out with a 'baby.' You know when he is heading for trouble long before he realizes that he is knee deep in it. This movie drips with dramatic irony. No, "Pocket Money" isn't a mainstream movie and it certainly doesn't qualify as 'an important work of cinematic art.' Jim Kane (Paul Newman) discovers as "Pocket Money" opens that the 30 Appaloosa studs and mares that he has rounded up must be placed in quarantine for six weeks because they have dourine, the equivalent of venereal disease for horses. Kane has a bank note due but the banker has enough faith in our hero to give him an extension with neither an argument nor a lecture. Okay, he does give Kane some advice that he should have bled his livestock before he crossed the Mexican border with them. Kane appreciates the advice. Kane's Uncle Herb (Fred Graham of "Arizona Raiders") offers to hire him to do his stock auction bidding while Kane waits for the quarantine to elapse. Kane knows nothing about bidding and turns down Herb's solid job offer of work. Kane gets a tip in a bar from a questionable friend named Stretch Russell (Wayne Rogers before starred in TV's "M.A.S.H.") about a cattle deal. Stretch introduces Kane as 'the Chihuahua Express' to an Amarillo rodeo buyer, Bill Garrett (Strother Martin of "Cool Hand Luke"), who needs 250 two-year old rodeo cattle. Uncle Herb doesn't think favorably of either Stretch or Garrett and warns Kane that they may be crooked. Kane ignores Herb's advice and follows his first impression. Garrett gives Kane a wad of cash and a bank draft and they agree to meet in Hermosillo, Sonora. Kane drives across the border in his pick-up truck. Kane looks up his old friend Leonard (Lee Marvin of "The Dirty Dozen") and Leonard tries to keep his friend out of trouble while in Mexico. Leonard arranges a deal between Juan (Hector Elizondo of "Cuba") and Kane for stock pens to hold the cattle. Kane and Leonard tool around in Leonard's old 1960's red Buick convertible make the rounds to find suitable livestock and haggle with the owners. At one ranch, Kane meets a woman named Adelita (Christine Belford) and they walk around a sunset, but nothing appears to happen romantically between the two of them. At one point, Kane argues with a Mexican worker Chavarin (Gregory Sierra) and fires him. Later, when Kane and Leonard come back to Leonard's hotel room, Chavarin jumps Kane and they tangle briefly doing more damage to the furniture than each other. Chavarin happens to be related to the local police chief and the authorities put Kane in jail when he refuses to pay off Chavarin. Leonard bails his buddy out of a Mexican hoosegow by selling Kane's pick-up truck. Afterward, Kane learns from Stretch that Garrett wants him to bring the cattle in a different way. Kane warns him that the Mexican authorities there will impound his cattle for ticks. Stretch assures Kane that Garrett has a fix put in and Kane will encounter no problems. Guess what happens? Altogether, "Pocket Money" is just small change. Newman is excellent as an eccentric cattleman with an impeccable reputation and Marvin is subdued as his pal with some really strange ideas, such as selling colored salt. Veteran western stuntman Richard 'Diamond' Farnsworth has a brief walk-on role when he informs the Newman character about his diseased horses. "Where'd you get those horses, from a cathouse?" Director Stuart Rosenberg and scenarist Malick never really let us in on the sly joke that this movie constitutes. We sit back and watch these guys and a lot of other guys make fools of themselves. No, "Pocket Money" possesses a plot but it has no point. You feel like you've been cheated for caring about a couple of fellows who get screwed in the long run.