Million Dollar Weekend

Million Dollar Weekend is a 1948 American noir film directed by, and starring, Gene Raymond.

Plot summary

Stockbroker Nicholas Lawrence (Gene Raymond) has grown tired of his tedious life in Los Angeles and decides one day to escape, stealing cash and securities from his company worth about a million dollars. He buys a plane ticket to Shanghai via Honolulu.

Cynthia Strong (Osa Massen) is a Los Angeles housewife who has just attended her husband's funeral service. After that she goes straight to the airport and buys a ticket for the same flight as Nicholas.

As Cynthia leans back in her plane seat, she is caught by surprise when a man she knows named Alan Marker (Francis Lederer) comes up to her and claims he saw her murder her husband. Marker wants half the life insurance money to keep his mouth shut, but Cynthia denies that she killed her husband. Marker tells her she has until one hour after the plane lands in Honolulu to decide if she will give him the money.

Cynthia begs Nicholas, who is sitting close to her, for help, saying that the man she just talked to threatened her. Nicholas agrees to help, and pretends to be an acquaintance of Cynthia's when Marker comes back.

Upon their arrival in Honolulu, it turns out they are all staying at the same hotel. Cynthia and Nicholas meet up again on the hotel terrace, and in the meantime Marker sneaks into Nicholas' room and steals his briefcase.

Cynthia and Nick talk about their respective attempts to flee from their lives by boarding the plane. Soon they are attracted to each other, and Cynthia invites Nick to have dinner with her the next day. Nick has to catch his flight and must decline. When Nick gets back to his room he discovers that someone has been in there and stolen his briefcase. He immediately suspects Cynthia, and believes she was working together with Marker on the scam.

Cynthia denies the accusation and helps Nick search for Marker, who is missing from the hotel. They eventually manage to track him to the airport and also board his flight, en route to San Francisco.

On the plane, Marker shows the other two that he has a gun, and confesses to stealing the briefcase. As they arrive in San Francisco, Marker sees to it that Nick is caught by the customs officers, who suspect he is carrying illegal goods. During the commotion that arises, Marker manages to sneak off the plane unseen.

Nick and Cynthia soon get out of the airport and start looking for Marker in the city's hotels. Nick tells Cynthia about the money in his briefcase, and she tells him about the insurance money she got when her husband died. She suffered many years of abuse from her husband, and one evening after the two of them had dinner with Marker, her husband tried to rape her and when she pushed him away he accidentally fell off their terrace.

Cynthia reveals that Marker tried to blackmail her on the plane and Nick believes every word she says. He claims to feel guilty about taking all his clients' money. They decide to return to Los Angeles and try to set things straight. They agree that if they manage to do so, they'll meet a month later in Honolulu.

As Nick is sitting in the restaurant alone, a young woman comes in to buy a bottle of a certain Napoleon brandy, which happens to be exactly the brand that is Marker's favorite. Nick knows this, and tails the girl back to a boardinghouse, where he finds Marker.

A fistfight ensues between Nick and Marker, but Nick wins and gets his briefcase back. He returns to Los Angeles just in time to deposit the money back into his company's account before anyone notices it was gone. A month later, Nick and Cynthia meet again in Honolulu, as agreed.^[1]

Cast

• Gene Raymond as Nicholas Lawrence
• Osa Massen as Cynthia Strong
• Francis Lederer as Alan Marker
• Robert Warwick as Dave Dietrich
• Patricia Shay as Sally
• James Craven as Dr. George Strong
• The Royal Hawaiian Serenaders as Themselves

Soundtrack

• "My Destiny" (Written by Dorothy Daniels and Dorothy Roberts)
• "Where Have You Been?" (Written by Dorothy Daniels and Dorothy Roberts)
• "Heaven Is in My Blue Hawaii" (Written by Paul Koy)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Million Dollar Weekend.

• Million Dollar Weekend at the Internet Movie Database
• Million Dollar Weekend is available for free download at the Internet Archive

References