Pocket Money bills itself as a comedy. It would be more accurate to say that the film is one extremely long joke. The question, "How dumb is Paul Newman's character?" is posed and rearticulated for nearly one hundred minutes before we finally get to the punchline, which is simply an encryption of the response, "Really really dumb."

Newman plays Jim Kane, a livestock broker whose life comes to an abrupt standstill when his stock is quarantined at the Mexican border. He can't pay his debts until he is allowed to sell the stock, so he visits his banker to explain that he can't pay the money he owes the bank. "I haven't got a nickel," he explains. "Perhaps you could just pay the interest," suggests the banker.

"But," Kane whines in frustration, "I haven't got a nickel." This scene occurs less than ten minutes into the film, and I would suggest that it is the litmus test for the enjoyment that the casual viewer will be able to take in Pocket Money. If you think it's funny to see Paul Newman portray a character who whines in frustration, this is the movie for you. If you're looking for Newman to deliver witty one-liners in this 'comedy,' I fear you're in for a colossal disappointment.

Jim Kane's favorite thing to whine about is what words mean. He has a vocabulary (I'm guessing) of roughly one thousand words. When people use words that he doesn't know, his face goes slack in a way that communicates his confusion. But when they pause to explain what they meant, he whines, "I thought that was what you meant." And when they are confused by the absurd assertions that he is rather fond of making, he whines, "That's not what I meant."

He spends the entire film whining about meaning because he spends the entire film being slightly confused. When he is more than slightly confused, he walks in tight little circles while gritting his teeth. And when he is extremely confused, he kicks the fenders of cars.

But Newman's convincing portrayal of a dumb guy is only part of the reason to watch this character study (for the plot is so incomprehensible that the only charitable way to categorize the film is as a character study). The other reason to watch is to see Lee Marvin's inspired portrayal of a dumb guy (Leonard) who is furiously trying to convince the world that he's a tough guy. He thinks he sounds tough when he makes flatulent noises with his mouth, so he makes such noises incessantly. But he has a hard time convincing anyone that he's tough because he goes out of his way to cringe before authority figures.

The basic idea of the film is that Jim and Leonard must go into Mexico to round up 250 head of cattle to bring back to Texas. The cattleman who hired them intends to cheat them. The people they buy cattle from intend to cheat them. The people they keep their cattle with intend to cheat them. For the sake of variety, a number of things happen for no reason. Jim falls off a horse for no particular reason. And when Jim is wanted by the Mexican authorities, Leonard turns him in for no particular reason. But all of their adventures provide them with opportunities to have conversations that reveal their unfathomable stupidity to the audience.

Leonard: He wants five hundred pesos a head, but I can talk him down to four.
Jim: Just pay him what he wants.
L: Why?
J: So that we make a good impression.

After impressing the Mexican ranchers as a sucker, Jim has an awkward moment with a Mexican customs agent who wants to quarantine his cattle (which will put Jim back where he started). "No," he whines, "but you guys were supposed to be bribed this time to let me through!"

The stupidity is ratcheted up at least one notch every fifteen minutes of the film. By the end, it gets to be fairly amusing:

L: Jim?
J: Yeah?
L: You wanna know what I think?
Long pause
J (reluctantly, as if he is signing a mortgage contract): Yeah, okay.

As with any long joke (I'm thinking particularly of the ancient Wheaties joke in the pink hotel with the pink stairways), the film ends abruptly with a punchline that only a few members of the audience will say was worth the trouble. Jim and Leonard, having been cheated by Garrett (Strother Martin), the man who sent them into Mexico after the cattle, are upset because they didn't get their expenses back even after roughing Garrett up in his hotel room. "You know what I shoulda done?" asks Leonard.

J: What?
L: I shoulda carved a dollar sign right into his belly.
J: Could you do that?
L: Sure I could.
J: You shoulda done that.
L: You think it woulda scared him?
J: I dunno. It woulda scared me.
L: I think it woulda scared him.
J: Well the only way we'll ever know is if we call him and ask.

Is it worth sitting through an hour and forty-five minutes of non sequiturish plot to get to that punchline? I suppose that depends on how much you value a non sequiturish punchline. I think such punchlines are rare enough to make this joke worth the trouble that it takes to tell--just barely.

Recommended: Yes