Money from Home (1953)

Fans of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis will be amply rewarded by Money From Home, but those unconvinced that the team had any real magic will remain unconvinced by this typical offering. Anyone caught in the middle is likely to find Money moderately entertaining, a mindless little piece that unfortunately goes on a bit too long. (Even with George Marshall's fast pacing, the film begins to drag around the halfway point; the screwball chase that acts as a finale picks the pace up, but even it is a little too predictable to be as madcap as it wants to be.) As with too many films originally filmed in 3-D, there are extraneous bits meant to take advantage of the process which seem odd and out of place when viewed in 2-D. Though based on a Damon Runyon story, there's very little of the distinctive, flavorful patois associated with Runyon; dialogue instead tends toward bad puns and wordplay marked by "clever" assonance and near-rhymes (e.g. "a crocked jock and a bagged nag"). There are a couple of disposable songs mixed in, which at least provide a little variation. Martin and Lewis are thoroughly Martin and Lewis, the former easier to take than the latter, the latter harder to ignore. On the whole, Money doesn't pay off, but it has some individual sequences that are worth the gamble. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide