FORGOTTEN FILM: MONEY TALKS (1972)

Before there was BRUNO, before there was BORAT, there was Allen Funt.

Funt’s CANDID CAMERA was a wildly popular series. Funt would set up hidden cameras and try to catch real people in outrageous situations.

Airing in various formations for decades, from a radio show in the 40’s, to even an X-rated version on the Playboy channel in the 80’s, CANDID CAMERA, and it’s catchphrase “Smile, you’re on Candid Camera” was one of TV’s most popular catchphrases.

In the early 1970’s, Funt tried to expand the TV series to the big screen with two films for United Artists. The first film, 1970’s WHAT DO YOU SAY TO A NAKED LADY featured sex and nudity related skits. It was a fairly popular film. Originally released with an X-rating, it was rerated R in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s, I saw it air on either TBS or TNT with mainly just pixellation as editing. Released on VHS a couple times, it has never seen a DVD release.

His follow up film has never been released on VHS and only rarely turns up on TV.

In 1972, he released MONEY TALKS. This was a PG-rated film about, well, money.

Much of the film is made up of candid interviews with people talking about money. There is an interesting segment with a guy who goes door to door sharpening knives talking about his life, and how he makes money doing it.

Muhammed Ali appears as a guy trying to get out of paying for a C.O.D. delivery, and the reaction of people when they find out who he is. Henny Youngman tries to tell jokes to get out of paying for something. Both of these seem to work better on paper than the actual skit. A bit with a tap dancer tapping to get out of paying works a lot better.

There is one funny segment about an attendant trying to charge people to use a restroom. But for the most part, there are more laughs on a typical episode of the show.

While the film is worth looking at, it isn’t a great example of CANDID CAMERA. It does deserve a DVD release though.