Sucker Money (DVD)

Grief-stricken relatives travel to the dark den of Swami Yomurda, an Indian psychic who promises to contact the dead. What the wealthy mourners don't realize is that it's all a racket and Yomurda a cold-blooded conman!

Jimmy, a young reporter, gets himself hired by the swami to impersonate the recently departed, in order infiltrate and expose the sinister set-up. Yomurda discovers Jimmy's real identity and marks him for death, setting in motion a murder-filled climax.

The next-best-thing to Bela Lugosi on Poverty Row, Mischa Auer reprises the role of Yomurda which he first played in 1931's Sinister Hands. This pre-Code expose of the psychic racket also includes hypnotic control, a zombified ingenue, a fidgety hophead henchman and a female accomplice more interested in spirits of the liquid kind. - Tom Weaver

• drama