Sudden Money

Plot

Winning a $150,000 prize in a sweepstakes gives the Patterson family grand plans. Particularly head of the family Sweeney, a frustrated drummer who decides to start up his own band.

Everybody begins spending money. Sweeney's wife Elsie enrolls in an art school, eager to become a painter. Her brother Doc begins gambling on horse races. Off to an expensive finishing school goes the Pattersons' daughter, Mary, while son Junior is enrolled in a military academy. Grandpa Casey looks on with disapproval, believing the family should be more careful with its new windfall.

Sure enough, things go wrong. Sweeney takes a shine to a young woman called Yolo, who joins the band and immediately creates problems, her jealous jailbird boyfriend even punching Sweeney in the nose. Elsie's art teacher disappears with her tuition fee. Mary's new beau Johnny Jordan and his father are appalled by the family's behavior, and she ends up expelled from school. Bit by bit, the family goes broke.

Grandpa gives them an "I told you so." But after he wins a small cash prize himself, the family begins once again thinking big.

Cast