Money Means Nothing

At Joe's Roadside, a shabby New York roadhouse where all kinds of people mix, Julie Ferris meets Kenny McKay, a likeable but struggling young man from Brooklyn. She's from Manhattan wealth, he's trying to make a living, and their attraction pushes her to marry him despite her family's objections. Once married, Julie finds that life with Kenny and his circle isn't what she'd imagined, and the differences in class, manners, and expectations start to strain her optimism. The film follows how love collides with social pressures and personal compromises, keeping its focus on character and the small crises that test a marriage.

Directed by Christy Cabanne and released in 1934, the screenplay credits go to Frances Hyland and William Anthony McGuire. It was produced during Hollywood's early sound era and features a mix of stage and screen actors typical of the period.

No reliable box office figures are available for this title, and it didn't register as a major commercial hit. It appears to have had a modest theatrical run rather than wide or record-breaking distribution.

Today the movie is mostly of interest to collectors and historians who study 1930s social melodramas. The roadhouse setting and the contrast between Manhattan and Brooklyn life give it a clear period flavor, and performances by Wallace Ford and Edgar Kennedy help anchor the film as a slice of Depression-era entertainment rather than a mainstream classic.

Modern reaction is limited, with a small number of contemporary viewers rating it below average. Critics looking back note the film's simple moral conflicts and its focus on class and marital expectations, themes common in mid 1930s dramas. It puts character moments ahead of spectacle, and it speaks to how social background could complicate even earnest choices about love and family.