''I'll Sell My Life'' is a 1941 American

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

Elmer Clifton Elmer Clifton Forsyth (March 14, 1890 – October 15, 1949) was an American director, screenwriter, and actor from the early silent days. Early life Elmer Clifton Forsyth was born in Toronto, Canada, to Cecil Carl Forsyth and Margaret Nicoll ...

and starring

Rose Hobart Rose Hobart (born Rose Kefer; May 1, 1906 – August 29, 2000) was an American actress and a Screen Actors Guild official. Early years Born in New York City, Hobart was the daughter of a cellist in the New York Symphony Orchestra, Paul Ke ...

, Michael Whalen and Joan Woodbury.Fetrow p.224 The film was based on the

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp magazine, pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting year ...

''I'll Buy Your Life'' by Walter Ripperger.

Plot

Two hirelings report to their boss Mr. Bochini that they witnessed his lover being murdered by another woman unknown to them. Mordecai Breen the editor of a small newspaper called "The Friend in Need", notices an unusual classified advertisement offering "I'll Buy Your Life". He visits the address where he views Dale Layden waiting to be interviewed, but another woman named Valencia Duncan tells Breen that Albert Darnell, who placed the ad will only see women. Dale needs the $20.000 offered to pay for an operation to restore her brother's sight. Darnell informs her that she will receive $2000 now, with the rest of the money to be paid to the person or office of her choice after he own death. Breen smells a story, Darnell, a published mystery author tells Breen that he has offered money to people to get the stories of their lives to use for future stories, but Breen is unconvinced and tries to get the truth out of Dale, who gives Breen an alias but uses his office as the address where the balance of her money will be paid.

Cast

as Dale Layden * Michael Whalen as Mordecai Breen * Stanley Fields as Bochini * Joan Woodbury as Valencia Duncan *

Roscoe Ates Roscoe Blevel Ates (January 20, 1895 – March 1, 1962) was an American vaudeville performer, actor of stage and screen, comedian and musician who primarily featured in western films and television. He was best known as western character So ...

as Happy Hogan * Richard Bond as Albert Darnell *

Ben Taggart Ben Taggart (April 5, 1889 – May 17, 1947) was an American actor. Taggart's stage experience began in Seattle, and he went on to play leading roles in Washington, Portland, San Francisco, Trenton, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. He was described ...

as Police Lt. Hammer *

Robert Regent The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

as Philip Leyden *

Paul Maxey Paul Regan Maxey (March 15, 1907 – June 3, 1963) was an American actor. Biography Born in Wheaton, Illinois, the rotund Maxey played character roles in films from 1937, notably as the composer Victor Herbert in ''Till the Clouds Roll ...

as Grady *

Munro Brown A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

as Freddie * Robert Walker as Lugger *

Eduardo Durant Eduardo is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the male name Edward. Another version is Duarte. It may refer to: Association football * Dudu (footballer, born 1992) (Eduardo Pereira Rodrigues), Brazilian footballer * Eduardo (footballer, born 1 ...

as Eddie, Orchestra Leader * Frances Morris as Annie Winterbottom

References

Bibliography

* Fetrow, Alan G. ''Feature Films, 1940-1949: a United States Filmography''. McFarland, 1994.

External links

* 1941 films 1941 crime films 1940s English-language films American crime films Films directed by Elmer Clifton American black-and-white films 1940s American films English-language crime films Films scored by Marvin Hatley Films based on short fiction {{1940s-US-film-stub