Ten a Penny
Financier Steve Mordaunt (Ivan Samson) calls in his trouble shooter Bob Westlake (Hugh McDermott) and his new wife Susie (Honor Blackman) when he has a bit of trouble involving an attempted burglary. Bob is immediately suspicious of Mordaunt's girlfriend Rosemary Delgado (Jane Hylton) who was not only down stairs when the burglar tried to break in but as Bob learns was the mistress to a major criminal. It seems that Rosemary has a connection to the Middle East which ties in with a rare collection of Middle Eastern books which Steve Mordaunt is having shipped in. But as Bob's investigations go deeper it puts Susie in danger.
Ten a penny is a phrase I often heard growing up and it is a phrase which fits "You Pay Your Money" as this is one of those b-movies from the 50s with a bog standard storyline and bog standard characters and basically nothing which makes it stand out, it is ten a penny. Whilst I doubt you would ever get ten of these movies for a penny this is the sort of movie you might find packaged with nine other 50's b-movies on a cheap DVD boxset. That doesn't mean it is bad just these days completely uninspired and the sort of movie you watch either because you are a fan of one of the actors or like me and will watch anything.
But in fairness considering "You Pay Your Money" comes in under 70 minutes it has a fair bit going on, most of which I assume is to distract you as there are various story elements which don't seem to go anywhere. In truth the main storyline which sees Bob trying to get to the bottom of the attempted burglary is not that interesting and as already suggested is pretty typical with Bob being chased when he is spotted snooping in the grounds of a house and his glamorous wife Susie coming to his rescue when she throws a shoe at a henchman to distract him, at which point we get one of those staged fights where Bob knocks the gun out of the bad guys hands. It is all basic stuff and whilst admittedly there is a certain amount of mystery it doesn't really get you gripped.
There is also the acting and for the most it is forgettable with Hugh McDermott delivering over the top facial expressions in pretty much every scene. There are also the women in this movie and both Jane Hylton and Honor Blackman are attractive but both are saddled with poorly written characters whose actions are at times quite amusing.
What this all boils down to is that "You Pay Your Money" is just another movie from the 1950s, one of those thrillers which are not gripping enough to be thrilling and which now only really hold interest for mad movie lovers who will watch anything or for those who are fans of its cast.
