20,000 Eyes

1961, Movie, NR, 61 mins

starstarstarstar
Nelson is an investment counselor who embezzles $100,000 from a client in order to protect his interests in a South American diamond mine. Unfortunately, this client is Banner, a retired gangster. When Banner finds out about the scam, he gives Nelson time to raise the money to pay him back on the condition that Nelson take out a life insurance policy with the gangster as sole beneficiary of its $100,000 payoff. Nelson is informed that unless the cash is raised in five days, he'll have an "accident" that will make fund raising unnecessary. In desperation Nelson gets his partner Brown and secretary Anders to help him rob gems from a local museum. This they do, replacing the real gems with clever fakes. Nelson then takes out a $100,000 insurance policy on the diamonds and has Brown steal them so he can collect the money. This appears to be successful until Nelson discovers that the money won't be paid for at least five weeks. When he tells Banner this news, the gangster shoots him in the back. Before dying Nelson throws a television at Banner, knocking him into a swimming pool and electrocuting the man. This film was shot in only six days on a budget of just $70,000. Though it suffers from a quick shoot and cheapie production values, it's not such a bad effort. The B-grade plot has some nice elaborations and the direction handles the suspense with adeptness. Characters are somewhat poorly sketched, with simplistic motivations, but all in all it turned out well, typical of several quick and cheap films Associated Producers was making in conjunction with 20th-Century Fox at the time. leave a comment
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20,000 Eyes
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