Bunco Squad

1950
6.1| 1h7m| en| More Info
Released: 01 September 1950 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Police sergeants Johnson and McManus take on Los Angeles confidence tricksters. Con man Tony Wells, lining up rich widow Jessica Royce as his latest mark, sets up a false paranormal society with other charlatans to convince the credulous Jessica that her late son is speaking to her through their sham seances. When the plan leads to murder, Johnson and McManus must bring the group down before they kill again.

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RKO Radio Pictures

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Reviews

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.
Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
ksf-2 This one plays like a (boring) chapter from Dragnet; local vice squad, led by Detective Johnson (Robert Sterling) tries to round up the local occult film-flammers who have moved into town. Unfortunately, there is already a group trying to take a rich old dame's dough. Ricardo Cortez, Bernadene Hayes, and Robert Bice team up to pretend to be able to speak with the old lady's deceased son. Elisabeth Risdon plays Jessica Royce, and totally buys into it. Dick Elliot is the gabby real estate guy who gives them some of the info on her son.... of course, he was the mayor in "Andy Griffith". Things get pretty rough, when the gang tries to knock off everyone trying to get in their way... which seems like a lot of trouble. Probably would have been easier to just pack up and find a new town rather than get involved in murder. Directed by Herb Leeds; didn't end well for him.. .he offed himself at age 54, just a couple years after making "Bunco". Anyway... this one is OK. Some great scenes of old Los Angeles. Going to give this one a "6" for being just OK.
dougdoepke You've got to hand it to post-war RKO-- they really knew how to turn out fast, efficient little crime dramas. Nothing special here, except a good look at LA locations circa 1950 and Detroit's all-time ugliest car—the "inverted bathtub" Nash sedan. Ricardo Cortez makes an excellent smoothie conning gullible women out of their fortunes. However, the phony medium set-up comes across as something of a stretch, but does lend needed atmosphere. Also, having cutie Joan Dixon play an actress allows for some clever "movie within a movie" set-ups; at the same time, the very last line sounds like an inspiration of the moment that was allowed to stand. Note too that usual bad guy Doug Fowley gets to work the other side of the law, and in a crime drama, no less. Still and all, I wish the screenplay had gotten more imaginative by using tricks from magician Dante to foil the crooks, instead of two guys in black beating up a crook in the dark, which may make an interesting visual effect, but makes no plot sense. Anyhow it's a good, fast hour of programming that shows again how well RKO could fill up a double-bill at the local theatre.
Robert J. Maxwell To the extent that this movie is apt at all, it fits Los Angeles better than any other American city of the period. There was a certain craziness about the place. There still is. It has hot dog stands in the shape of hot dogs. It has motels with names like The Taj Mahal in the shape of the Taj Mahal only painted day-glo purple. And I don't want to think too hard about the Madonna Inn, which seems to be made entirely of plastic spaghetti, lest my synapses fuse.In the 1930s and 40s it was a land of spiritualism and cults, of which Amy Semple McPherson's Four Square Gospel was perhaps the best known. This movie is like a stretched-out episode of "Dragnet," with all-good police officers in pursuit of all-bad phony spiritualists who rig séances in order to bilk a rich, gullible old lady out of her fortune. Sadly it lacks the reassuring ritual quality of Dragnet's style of dialog and movement.In this Zoroastrian world of black and white, Packards and Nashes career around curves in accelerated motion, the phones ring every ten minutes with important news, actresses are dragooned into plots to undo the evil-doers, and people speak in stereotypical lines that sound like they came directly from a screenplay.Nobody is a good actor. You know what would have pepped this up? Just ONE performer with a modicum of talent -- say, Marie Windsor, as the fake medium. And -- oh, hell -- throw in Mantan Moreland for laughs.
vandino1 Dull lead Robert Sterling plays the dully named detective "Steve Johnson." He's in the title squad investigating a phony medium racket lead by Cortez, who is trying to bilk a believing widow out of her fortune. Dixon is actress fiancé of Johnson enlisted to act as a medium to help trap the phonies. Lots of brakelines get cut in this film (three times!) to try and kill off Johnson and others. Chase finale features the cliché car-crashing-over-the-cliff, but the stock footage of the crash features a totally different car from the one the villain drives. A short film, but routine and flat. It looks like something out of a fifties TV cop drama. The cast tries but is defeated by a script that gives them little characterization.