"I Want Some Money (Gimme Some, Gimme Some, Gimme Some)" in Alfred Hitchcock's Downhill (1927)

The video clip shows the opening credits of Alfred Hitchcock's Downhill (1927) and then I've cut it to a later scene that features a closeup of the record "I Want Some Money (Gimme Some, Gimme Some, Gimme Some)" (music by L. Silberman, words by Herbert Rule & Fred Holt) by the Bohemian Band on the Winner label and a closeup of the needle drop.

Organists or orchestras in film theaters could well have used the needle drop as a cue to perform the song. Possibly some may have even tried playing the record in theaters if they had a copy of it (it *is* a real record) and if they had adequate amplification for the gramophone.

I made a digital recording of the song from the record and synced it to the first needle drop, and stopped it where Ivor Novello's character removes the needle, stopping the song before it ends. I still need to add it in a second where Novello's character starts the song over after winding the gramophone, though.

The Bohemian Band's recording is an instrumental, but they were not the only ones to record the song at the time. Some other versions of it can be found on YouTube, and the sheet music at the University of Maine's Digital Commons.

I Want Some Money, sung by The Two Gilberts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChwRe3QOmIY

radio dance orch - I want some money (columbia3173) (1923) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8R46Bx0ht0

78 RPM - Primo Scala & Banjo Accordion Band - I Want Some Money (1948) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NgliuOrN1U

Silberman, L; Holt, Fred; and Rule, "I Want Some Money" (1922). Vocal Popular Sheet Music Collection. Score 3113. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3113

it was real hard as nails poverty and a gesture of musical desperation on the piano that gave Fred Holt, my collaborator, and myself the idea for "I want some money—gimme some do!"

Rule, Herbert. "£50 a Minute: Secrets of the Song-Writing Profession." Derby Daily Telegram. February 3, 1925: 5 col 2.

The title and lyrics, with which audiences may have been familiar, intersect what's happening in the film's scene and action that later follows it, to some extent. Tim Wakely (Robin Irvine), seated, has met up with the girl Mabel (Annette Benson) whom he's sweet on where she works, "Ye Olde Bunne Shoppe," a sweet shop featuring "cakes, confectionary, pastry." He has been accompanied by his schoolmate Roddy Berwick (Ivor Novello), who dances with Mabel.

A doorbell rings to announce a little boy who wants to buy some chocolate with a single half penny. Roddy Berwick sells him an entire box, one that had been on special display on top of the register, at far below cost. He then creates further trouble for himself (and for Mabel) by ringing up £1 (240 pence, at the time) rather than the ha'penny he put in the register from the boy.

Mabel later hits Roddy Berwick up for money, claiming (falsely) that he's gotten her pregnant and she's going to have his baby as he seems a better prospect than Tim Wakely. Roddy Berwick protects his friend by taking the blame and must leave school, making for the "downhill" story that follows.

Downhill is included as a supplemental feature on Criterion's blu-ray release of The Lodger (also starring Novello) and looks much better than the video used for the above clip. Criterion's blu-ray has a score by Neil Brand, and accompanies the above scene with a peppy instrumental piano rendition of "I Want Some Money" wherein he added a nice bit of musical suspense to the part where Tim Wakely waits for the dancers to reappear from the beaded curtain behind which they'd danced away.

What is it that ev-’ry bo-dy craves for?

What is it that ev-’ry bo-dy raves for?

You know and I know and ev-’ry one knows

What’s so hard to get as you know

ve-ry soon goes,—

What is it that ev-’ry bo-dy wants to-day,

Can’t do with-out it, this is what we say.

I want some mon-ey,

gim-me some, gim-me some, gim-me some, gim-me some, do,—

Oh, ain’t it fun-ny

the dif-fer-ence that mon-ey makes to you,—

Wheth-er you’re rich,

wheth-er you’re poor,

Some-bo-dy comes knocking at your door

and they say:

I want some mon-ey,

gim-me some, gim-me some, gim-me some, gim-me some, do,—

Some get tired of drink-ing and of eat-ing,

Sweethearts sometimes they get tired of meet-ing

Some get so tired of work night and day,

People ev-en get so wea-ry, too tired to play—

Some get tired of ask-ing some-one for a kiss,

No-bo-dy yet got tired of ask-ing this.

(Chorus)

Friends of mine they had a lit-tle ba-by,

And he was a reg-’lar won-der ba-by,

They watched him grow and they taught him to walk,

Mo-ther was so pleased and when he starte-d to talk—

Dad-dy brought him toys and sweets to chew, but oh,

That bright young-ster cried ‘I don’t want ’em, oh no’.

(Chorus)

Christopher K. Philippo