Finders Keepers (1951) Poster

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5/10
Decent, Agreeable, Improbable
boblipton14 August 2019
Bank robbers led by Douglas Fowley head out to the suburbs to bury their loot. Along comes a toddler, who digs it up, puts it in a wagon and takes it home. Grandma is Evelyn Varden, a shady lady who likes to play the angles. Daddy is Tom Ewell, a paroled ex-con trying to go straight. Mommy is Julie Adams, a straight-laced young woman.

It's a decently executed comedy of the brittle sort that the studios were producing at this time, rather brittle essays in how people were trying to lead normal lives -- whatever those were -- after the Depression and the Second World War. Amidst long stretches in which nothing much happens while the audience is waiting for the neatly-stacked piles of cash to be revealed, Miss Varden's eccentric character offers some smiles. There's also a nice small role for Herbert Anderson as a blase hotel clerk. However agreeable this movie is, it's never more than that.
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6/10
Passably entertaining!
JohnHowardReid13 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Director: FREDERICK de CORDOVA. Screenwriter: Richard Morris. Cinematographer: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Milton Carruth. Music: Hans J. Salter. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Richard H. Riedel. Hair-styles: Joan St Oegger. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Producer: Leonard Goldstein.

Copyright 30 October 1951 by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. A Universal-International Picture. No New York opening. U.S. release: January 1952. U.K. release: December 1951. Australian release: 23 May 1952. 6,693 feet. 74 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A two-year-old boy discovers the hiding place of stolen money.

COMMENT: Crammed full of talk, this Tom Ewell vehicle was obviously filmed on a rigorous "B" budget. However, it does feature some genuinely amusing moments, and is nothing if not spiritedly played — especially by Evelyn Varden.

Frederick de Cordova's direction rates as competent and Richard Morris' script passably entertaining. There seem to be signs of obvious padding, particularly with Miss Adams' part. And she does not cope with her additional material nearly as well as Miss Varden, though, admittedly, Miss Varden has the more entertaining lines.

Production credits are good, particularly Carl Guthrie's fine photography.
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