$1,000 a Minute
Cast & Crew
Aubrey Scotto
Roger Pryor
Leila Hyams
Edward Brophy
Sterling Holloway
Edgar Kennedy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
While reporter Wally Jones's editor, Charlie, is looking for him to fire him, Wally is attempting to borrow an engagement ring. He wants to give it to his fiancée, Dorothy Summers, that night, but he has not made a payment on it for a year, and the jewelry shop owner, Mr. Vanderbrocken, will not allow him to borrow it. Wally then meets Dorothy for dinner, and, upset about his irresponsibility with money, she tells him they are through. Wally asks Charlie for money, but Charlie fires him for not following through on an important bank robbery story. Wally then takes his remaining ten dollars to a gambling casino, but after a winning streak, his luck turns sour and he loses everything. Meanwhile, casino owner Big Jim Bradley and his friend, Sonny Rycross, have gotten into an argument about whether anyone could spend $1,000 a minute. They make a bet that requires a person to spend $720,000 in twelve hours by purchasing different items. Just then, Wally comes into Jim's office to ask for a loan. Jim refuses the loan but tells Wally about the bet and also tells him that he will get $10,000 if he succeeds. Wally agrees, and with Jim's employee, Benny Dolan, along to make sure that he sticks to the rules, Wally begins his buying spree. He starts at Vanderbrocken's jewelry store, where Vanderbrocken assumes he is being held up by Wally and calls Wally's buddy McCarthy and Ryan, two policemen. Vanderbrocken discovers that Wally's check is good, and Wally leaves without being arrested. McCarthy is suspicious, however, and after talking with Dorothy and Charlie, decides that Wally must have been involved in the bank robbery that he was supposed to investigate. Wally, meanwhile, buys a racehorse from New Deal Watson and then an expensive fur coat from the Reville Fur Co. McCarthy and Ryan question Reville about Wally's purchases, and Dorothy is crushed when McCarthy suggests that Wally bought the coat for another woman. Dorothy still believes in Wally though, and when she catches up with him while he is buying a car, she warns him that the police are after him. Wally and Benny escape from McCarthy and Ryan and buy a yacht, then a champion Great Dane dog named Cyril. After Wally buys a rare wine collection, he and Benny are chased by McCarthy and Ryan and wind up in the hospital after colliding with an apple cart. With only fifteen minutes and $25,000 to go, Wally frantically tries to buy a much-needed radium capsule for the hospital, but he is $25,000 short. Jim and Sonny arrive and tell McCarthy about the bet, which Jim is just about to collect when Wally receives the prize money won by his race horse that afternoon. The prize is just enough to make up the difference for the radium capsule, and Wally spends all of his money just in time. Jim gives Wally's reward to Dorothy for safekeeping, and the sweethearts are reconciled.
Director
Aubrey Scotto
Cast
Roger Pryor
Leila Hyams
Edward Brophy
Sterling Holloway
Edgar Kennedy
Purnell Pratt
Herman Bing
Arthur Hoyt
William Austin
Franklin Pangborn
George Hayes
Morgan Wallace
Russell Hicks
Claude King
Spencer Charters
Lee Phelps
Ian Wolfe
James Burtis
Harry C. Bradley
Fern Emmett
Fred Malatesta
Prince, A Dog
Rolfe Sedan
Cecile Elliott
Crew
Claire Church
Colbert Clark
Ray Curtiss
Joseph Fields
Roy Granville
I. Magnin
Terry Kellum
Nat Levine
Joseph H. Lewis
Jack Marta
Ernest Miller
Jack Natteford
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Sound Editing
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Some reviewers called this film A $1,000 a Minute. According to Hollywood Reporter news items and production charts, Arthur Beckhard, Bob Beche and W. Scott Darling were set to work on this film's screenplay, but their contribution to the completed picture has not been confirmed. A August 20, 1934 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that Phil Rosen had been signed as the director by Mascot, which became part of Republic. A Hollywood Reporter production chart includes Lloyd Whitlock in the cast, but his participation in the finished film has not been confirmed. The Hollywood Reporter review called the film "a pip of a satire on Brewster's Millions" (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.0477). $1,000 a Minute was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Recording.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1935
Released in United States 1935
