The first in MGM's wonderful Crime Does Not Pay short series stars an up-and-coming Robert Taylor as an embezzler who turns himself in, lying and saying he spent all of the money he stole ($200,000 - a lot of bread in 1935). His plan is to serve the few years of prison time so that when he's released he will be able to spend all that money without the cops looking over his shoulder. But once inside the pen he starts worrying something might happen to the money and before long he's thinking of escape. Great beginning to the series with an interesting story with some neat twists and a big star when he was still a nobody. A lot of fun for classic film fans, particularly if you enjoy crime dramas from back in the day.

I first saw this film on Channel 4 back in 1988 whilst I was in secondary school and remember thinking that this was a good vehicle to showcase Robert Taylor as a future talent. It is far superior to 'Society Doctor' simply we see him scheming when he is in court being given a prison sentence. It has the feel of the 'Scotland Yard' short subjects. We see him enjoying himself in prison playing the game until it is time for him to be released and free to enjoy his $200,000. However, the idea is dropped into his head that whilst he is in prison someone may discover his buried loot and leave him with nothing. You see the smile drop from his face and replaced with a dark gloom. There is darkness in Robert Taylor, and it is pity that he always played protagonists because he had enough darkness in him to play antagonists like in 'Undercurrent'.

***SPOILERS*** We get the story straight from the horse's mouth the straight talking and no BS MGM Reporter about a man who thought he can profit from his crime who in the end got far more then he expected in an extended stay in the clink for it.Bank teller Albert Douglas had come up with this foolproof plan to embezzle $200,000.00 from the bank,the Seacoast Bank, he worked for by admitting his crime and later, after he served his time behind bars, retrieve it and live happily ever after. Everything worked like clockwork for the brash and sure of himself Douglas getting 5 to 10 years in Sing Sing and with good behavior he's expected to be out on the street a free man after five years with a stash of $200,000.00 waiting for him. It's when Douglas' cell-mate Louie Rattig came up with this plan to crash out of prison that Doglas started to change his mind about stying for the duration of his sentence and joined Louie in the jailbreak. Louie got Douglas to thinking that the stash of cash may not be around, by being discovered, by the time he got out of prison thus leaving him without a pot to you know what in.**SPOILERS*** With both Douglas & Louie now free by impersonating a priest and the father of a convicted murder about to get zapped in the electric chair it's only a matter of time before Douglas checks out the place in the wilds of New Jersey where he hid the stolen money. To make doubly sure that he'll get away with his crime the handsome looking Douglas, played by a 24 year old Robert Taylor, messed his face up with acid having him look like the Frankenstein Monster so that no one would recognize him when he takes off by boat to South America with the stolen loot!As we and Douglas soon finds out all this was for nothing with him being caught in a sting that was set up for him before he even entered a guilty plea in court. Douglas was given by the law enough rope to hang himself and as things turned out it was his both greed and arrogance that ended up doing him in! Albert Douglas found out the hard way something that he should have known before he ever even thought of breaking the law and then manipulating it in his favor: Crime does not pay and he'll pay for that mistake until he's he's old and gray if in fact he gets that far in prison!

One of Robert Taylor's earliest "films"--if you call a short subject, a film.All about a guy who steals $200,000 from a bank and the aftermath that goes with it. I found it to be very entertaining and thought that it was too bad that they did not do a complete full length film on this one, as it was really well made!!Try and catch it on a certain cable channel that shows these "one reel wonders", as it is a good one.