Several things about this movie "$30,000" intrigued me very much, not least its unusual title. This is a haunted-house film. When I mentioned a haunted house, you likely envisioned a creaky old mansion. There's another thing that intrigued me: the haunted house in '$30,000' is a brand-new block of flats, not a creaky mansion. What creaks here is the plot's pay-off.
Spalding Nelson (handsome JW Kerrigan) is a resourceful young man whose widowed aunt Mrs Bradford (Myrtle Rischell) and her two daughters Barbara (Fritzi Brunette; wotta name!) and Clare (Margery Wilson) recently moved into a new block of flats. The aunt is distressed because the building seems to be haunted; she and other tenants keep hearing whispers, footsteps, stifled screams.
This is a brilliant premise ... for a SOUND movie, not a silent. The grammar of silent film requires that, when the characters on screen hear a sudden noise, we the audience must see an insert shot of a hand rapping a door knocker (or whatever) so we know the sound's source. That rule can be broken once or twice in a silent movie, but not repeatedly. Throughout '$30,000', Kerrigan and other cast members keep reacting to sounds WE can't hear, so we expect to be SHOWN them ... but they can't be shown, because to do so would give away the mystery.
Spalding is on the ball, and he takes temporary lodging in his aunt's flat so he can play ghost-buster. Meanwhile, he gets sidetracked by weird business such as Margery Wilson teetering on the building's parapet. Unfortunately, just as the plot settles into place, that's when interesting things stop happening in this story. SPOILERS NOW. Despite some good camera-work, there's very little attempt to evoke an eerie atmosphere in this film -- no cobwebs, no graveyards -- so we expect the mystery to have a rational explanation that doesn't involve genuine ghosts. And this movie's unusual title turns out to be a handicap, since it makes the solution bang obvious to any modern viewer who's familiar with 'Angel Street', 'Scooby Doo' or several other similar mysteries. Aye, folks: there's a fortune hidden somewhere in the building (guess the dollar amount), and the 'ghosts' are actually criminals hunting for it.
What did surprise me is HOW MANY crooks turn out to be involved in these monkeyshines: there must be at least six of them, which means the booty amounts to less than $5,000 per crook, after expenses. (But that's well over a year's wage for most Americans in 1920.) Also, one of the crooks, with the unlikely name Rufus Gaston, is played by Joseph Dowling ... who was nearly always cast as incorruptible figures. (Dowling was American movies' nearest approximation to character actor Samuel S. Hinds before that actor came along.) Bits and bobs of '$30,000' impressed me very much, but this film's premise was doomed to failure in any movie lacking a soundtrack. My rating: just 5 out of 10.
Spalding Nelson (handsome JW Kerrigan) is a resourceful young man whose widowed aunt Mrs Bradford (Myrtle Rischell) and her two daughters Barbara (Fritzi Brunette; wotta name!) and Clare (Margery Wilson) recently moved into a new block of flats. The aunt is distressed because the building seems to be haunted; she and other tenants keep hearing whispers, footsteps, stifled screams.
This is a brilliant premise ... for a SOUND movie, not a silent. The grammar of silent film requires that, when the characters on screen hear a sudden noise, we the audience must see an insert shot of a hand rapping a door knocker (or whatever) so we know the sound's source. That rule can be broken once or twice in a silent movie, but not repeatedly. Throughout '$30,000', Kerrigan and other cast members keep reacting to sounds WE can't hear, so we expect to be SHOWN them ... but they can't be shown, because to do so would give away the mystery.
Spalding is on the ball, and he takes temporary lodging in his aunt's flat so he can play ghost-buster. Meanwhile, he gets sidetracked by weird business such as Margery Wilson teetering on the building's parapet. Unfortunately, just as the plot settles into place, that's when interesting things stop happening in this story. SPOILERS NOW. Despite some good camera-work, there's very little attempt to evoke an eerie atmosphere in this film -- no cobwebs, no graveyards -- so we expect the mystery to have a rational explanation that doesn't involve genuine ghosts. And this movie's unusual title turns out to be a handicap, since it makes the solution bang obvious to any modern viewer who's familiar with 'Angel Street', 'Scooby Doo' or several other similar mysteries. Aye, folks: there's a fortune hidden somewhere in the building (guess the dollar amount), and the 'ghosts' are actually criminals hunting for it.
What did surprise me is HOW MANY crooks turn out to be involved in these monkeyshines: there must be at least six of them, which means the booty amounts to less than $5,000 per crook, after expenses. (But that's well over a year's wage for most Americans in 1920.) Also, one of the crooks, with the unlikely name Rufus Gaston, is played by Joseph Dowling ... who was nearly always cast as incorruptible figures. (Dowling was American movies' nearest approximation to character actor Samuel S. Hinds before that actor came along.) Bits and bobs of '$30,000' impressed me very much, but this film's premise was doomed to failure in any movie lacking a soundtrack. My rating: just 5 out of 10.
