Paper Moon (1973), Night Riders (1939), Rich and Strange (1932), The Big Steal (1949), The Honeymoon Killers (1969), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), The Grifters (1990), The Brothers Bloom (2008) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Swindling movies.
Storyline: The two-man Laurel and Hardy Zoot Suit Band find themselves fronting a scam for "gasolene pills" in wartime oil-short America. They are however soon on the side of the angels helping recover $10,000 for an attractive young lady whose family have themselves been swindled.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Plot Keywords: musician, partner, con artist, pretty woman, stan, ollie, outlandish ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Former millionaire B.J. Nolan is useless with money, having lost most of his fortune on crazy schemes. His son, Kenneth, has the opposite problem thanks to good sense and a large inheritance bequeathed by his mother. In order to raise the cash for a housing project, B.J. enlists the help of young architect Virginia Travis to con the money out of Kenneth. At the same time Kenneth is being pursued by a pair of small-time hucksters and chaos results when they all end up in staying in B.J.'s house.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Plot Keywords: millionaire, architect, father, girlfriend, lover, hilarious, frenetic ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Carruthers has sold shares in a phony oil well and when Gene investigates he finds the well is a fake. Gene has a plan to recoup everyone's money. Pouring some oil in a recommended location gets Corruthers to drill a real well. Gene plans to let him know it's a fake and redeem the shares before the oil comes in.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: gene autry, sidekick, beautiful woman, mexican, swindler, radio personality, suspenseful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Mrs. Fay Cheyney, a rich American widow, insinuates herself into London society. Two men in particular -- middle-aged Lord Kelton and Lord Arthur Dilling, a young playboy -- pursue her. All are present at a large weekend house party, and though both men press their suit, Fay seems to favor Kelton. Then Dilling sees Fay's butler lurking in the gardens, recognizes him as a jewel thief who was apprehended in Monte Carlo, and realizes that Fay is probably after the hostess's pearls. Fay does get hold of the pearls -- but before she can pass them to her accomplice, Dilling gets hold of her.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com> and Determined Copy Editor
Plot Keywords: socialite, butler, wealthy man, lord, duchess, detective, witty ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A yuppie couple buy a large house in an exclusive San Fransisco neighborhood. They renovate it and plan to rent two apartments on the first floor to cover the costs. A prosperous looking man moves in but is not the ideal tenant. He never pays any rent, drives the other tenants away and systematically ruins the lives of his landlords.
Plot Keywords: con artist, man, woman, widow, tense, thrilling, creepy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Escaping to England from a French embezzlement charge, widower Henry Scarlett is accompanied by daughter Sylvia who, to avoid detection, "disguises" herself as a boy, "Sylvester." They are joined by amiable con man Jimmy Monkley, then, after a brief career in crime, meet Maudie Tilt, a giddy, sexy Cockney housemaid who joins them in the new venture of entertaining at resort towns from a caravan. Through all this, amazingly no one recognizes that Sylvia is not a boy...until she meets handsome artist Michael Fane, and drama intrudes on the comedy.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: love interest, father, con artist, artist, daughter, cheeky, unrestrained ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Meet Arlo Pear! He's a family man with a loving wife, a rebellious daughter, twin sons, and a half-dead dog, he's also got a nice job with the city in New Jersey. He's a mass transit engineer. But one day Arlo is fired so he must try to get another job. He finds a similar one to his old one, except it's in Boise, Idaho. Sounds good to Arlo, so he can finally get away from his insane neighbor who has a lawn mower the size of Pennsylvania. Only problem, how to break it to the family? The decision is soon made: they're moving. Now they've got to sell their house which has hilarious results, so now they need to get movers. Two former cons now movers show up with King Kong Bundy. Now, they gotta find a new house in Idaho. They soon find their dream house, so they return to New Jersey and head off to Boise. Arlo hires a man (Dana Carvey) to drive his SAAB to Idaho, not knowing he's a man of eight personalities. And if that isn't bad enough, their new house is not what they expected, and their neighbor in New Jeresey's twin brother lives next door and he's got a gigantic mower also. And as if things couldn't get any worse, they do. Arlo loses his new job and the movers never showed up. So now it's time for Arlo to kick some serious A$$!—Dylan Self <robocoptng986127@aol.com>
Plot Keywords: engineer, wife, hustler, neighbor, daughter, elderly man, hilarious ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A gunslinger attempts to hang up his hardware and help his younger brother raise cattle. The local attorney, whose brother the gunslinger shot in a fair fight, is determined to swindle the men out of their ranch by preventing a supply deal with the railroad, then using his bodyguard to bushwhack the younger brother.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: ex-convict, brother, lawyer, railroad baron, thug, suspenseful, melodramatic ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Told in semi-documentary style, this film deals with a little-known section of the Los Angeles Police Department which is assigned solely to checking on the activities of fortune tellers, swamis, palmists, and other occult societies, missing only Sciencetology. The primary story has L.A. police detectives Steve Johnson and 'Mack' McManus tracking down a wave of suicides they think have been influenced by a swindler-murderer Anthony Wells. The latter runs a pretentious house staffed with occultists across the board, and is trying to embezzle from Jessica Royle, a wealthy widow whose son was killed in action in World War II. Johnson uses his fiancée/actress, Grace Bradshaw, as an undercover operative to get inside information.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: police sergeant, criminal, con artist, psychic, fortuneteller, victim, suspenseful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Mr. Topaze ('Peter Sellers') is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy baroness. Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy (Nadia Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. Gradually, Topaze becomes a rapacious financier who sacrifices his honesty for success and, in a final stroke of business bravado, fires Benac and acquires Suzy in the deal. An old friend and colleague, Tamise (Michael Gough) questions him and tells Topaze that if what he now says and practices indicates there are no more honest men.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: teacher, actress, city official, headmaster, daughter, baroness, amusing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: In 1922, novice composer Kenneth Harvey arrives in New York from Kansas, hoping to publish his concerto; he meets speakeasy owner Danny O'Mara, who hopes to put on a broadway show. Ken's affairs take a turn for the better when he falls for singer Bonnie Watson. But while he labors on orchestration, O'Mara is surreptitiously adapting his tunes to the Greenwich Village Gaieties.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: composer, club owner, singer, violinist, henchman, love interest, lighthearted ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to scrawl "Captain J" on a sheet of paper. She proves to be Princess Lin Hwa, on a secret military mission for Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invasion. Mr. Wong finds two captains with the intial J in the case, neither being quite what he seems; there's fog on the waterfront and someone still has that poison-dart gun...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords: private detective, princess, captain, reporter, police captain, bank president, charming ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Molly Gunn, the freewheeling daughter of a deceased rock legend, is forced to get a job when her manager steals her money. As nanny for precocious Ray, the oft ignored daughter of a music executive, she learns what it means to be an adult while teaching Ray how to be a child.
Plot Keywords: girl, nanny, mother, boyfriend, music executive, daughter, charming ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Johnny Riggs, a con man on the lam, finds himself in a Latin-American country named Patria. There, he overhears a convent-bred rich girl praying to her guardian angel for help in managing her tangled business affairs. Riggs decides to materialize as the girl's "angel", gains her unquestioning confidence, and helps himself to the deluded girl's millions. Just as he and his partner are about to flee Patria with their booty, Riggs realizes he has fallen in love with the girl and returns the money, together with a note that is part confession and part love letter. But the larcenous duo's escape from Patria turns out to be more difficult than they could ever have imagined.—Dan Navarro <daneldorado@yahoo.com>
Plot Keywords: con artist, partner, heiress, aunt, guardian angel, hilarious, frenetic ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Miner Dan Barton (Ken Maynard) and his partner George Malden, known as "Tennessee", have hit a strike on their claim, and Dan returns to their cabin to find that Malden has departed to meet his sister, Alice (Jeanette Loff), who is arriving on the stage from Tennessee to join her brother. Dan knows that Malden has a weakness for drink, gambling and girls and follows him to town, where he finds him playing cards with gamblers Fox Tyson (Charles King) and saloon owner Ace Brady (William Thorne) who, with the aid of bar girl Queenie (Carmelita Geraghty), are well on their way to cheating him out of his share of the claim. Dan puts the stop to that, but Malden is killed by Tyson and Dan is framed for the killing. He escapes and saves Alice from a stagecoach disaster, and takes her to his and Malden's cabin, but doesn't let her know he is wanted for the death of her brother. But Ace and Tyson quickly inform her, and are well on their way to getting all of the Barton/Malden gold mine. The two songs are "Wait for the Wagon" and "Oh, Susanna." Other than being filmed under the working title of "California in 1878", which was also the title of Jack Natteford's original story,and then getting sold to TV in 1949 and having the title changed, there are no other alternative titles on this film. Two alternative spellings are shown by some sources---fighting for fightin' and through for thru---but those are typos created by two different trade paper reviewers in 1930.Accuracy regarding B-western titles was not a sticky point with the trade papers of the day.There are several versions of this story, including a Maynard remake called "Fargo Express" and Reliable Pictures used the story for Bob Steele's "The Pal from Texas."—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: henchman, niece, miner, bar owner, barmaid, gambler, engaging ...
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