User Reviews

A Crime Does Not Pay Series entry and one of the very few that includes acting credits. In this case, it's Raymond Hatton as Old Lesh and Harvey Stephens as the insurance investigator. A perk of this episode is seeing Richard Carlson in an uncredited role as the MGM reporter; Carlson went on to a solid acting career. Old Lesh receives a letter from his cousin, John Collins, asking if he can come and stay with him to regain his health. Old Lesh agrees and then six months after arriving, John dies in an apparently accidental car wreck. John had a $75,000 life insurance policy with a double indemnity clause in case of accidentally death with Old Lesh as the beneficiary. Given the size of the policy, the insurance company sends out an investigator. The investigator meets up with the local Sheriff and together they review the accident scene and interview Old Lesh. The Sheriff is satisfied with Old Lesh's story but the investigator is not. It's pretty interesting how the investigator unravels the insurance scam - a lot of little clues add up to the truth. It was a scam with a twist. A good entry in the series and highly watchable.

Was it murder, suicide or an accident? That is the goal in the investigation in this third crime does not pay series made by MGM for well over a decade. This gave character actors the chance to play leads, unknowns to have a screen test and most obviously to prove, like the title of the series that crime does indeed not pay. Here the leading actor is character actor Raymond Hatton, playing an old man living in the desert who helps agents investigate the death of a man in a fiery car crash. In just two reels, a lot of detail is presented but it is pretty obvious from the get go what actually transpired. The intriguing part is how it got there and the details that reveals in the meantime. A fun series, the crime doesn't pay shorts came out of the public's fascination with gangster and crime stories, and within 17 to 20 minutes these films were precursor to the film noir of the 1940's. They are fast paced, pretty realistic and always filled with surprises. This one may not be among the best, but it is still pretty entertaining.