Smart Money

A small-town barber with an uncanny gift for gambling is talked into heading for the city by his friends, and his luck at the tables draws the attention of everyone around him. What begins as a harmless trip turns into a rise through the gambling world, with the barber becoming a wealthy operator with his own establishment. His success puts him on the wrong side of respectable and powerful figures, and the district attorney sets out to bring him down. His weakness for blondes gives them their opening. The film is a crime drama about a man whose run of fortune comes with a price.

Alfred E. Green directed, following Disraeli (1929) in a run of films that would continue with It's Tough to Be Famous (1932) and Baby Face (1933). Edward G. Robinson plays Nick "The Barber" Venizelos, with James Cagney as his friend Jack among a cast that includes Evalyn Knapp, Ralf Harolde, Noel Francis and Margaret Livingston. John Bright, Kubec Glasmon and Lucien Hubbard wrote the screenplay.

Released in 1931 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation, the film runs 81 minutes. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 30 votes, indicating a modest but generally favourable response from those who have logged it.