Sudden Money

{{Infobox film

| name = Sudden Money

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| director = Nick Grinde

| producer = William C. Thomas

| writer = Lewis R. Foster

| starring = Charlie Ruggles
Marjorie Rambeau
Charley Grapewin
Broderick Crawford
Billy Lee
Evelyn Keyes

| music = Sam Coslow
John Leipold
Leo Shuken

| cinematography = Henry Sharp

| editing = Ellsworth Hoagland

| studio = Paramount Pictures

| distributor = Paramount Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1939|3|31}}

| runtime = 66 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Sudden Money is a 1939 American comedy film directed by Nick Grinde, written by Lewis R. Foster, and starring Charlie Ruggles, Marjorie Rambeau, Charley Grapewin, Broderick Crawford, Billy Lee and Evelyn Keyes. It was released on March 31, 1939, by Paramount Pictures.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/91827/sudden-money |title=Sudden Money (1939) - Overview |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |date= |access-date=2015-06-26}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/112181/Sudden-Money/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626112923/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/112181/Sudden-Money/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=2015-06-26 |title=Sudden-Money - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |author=Hal Erickson |author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |date=2015 |accessdate=2015-06-26}}

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 reassemble his old college ragtime 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 ex-convict 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.