Harrah's Casino, South Lake Tahoe AND Disneyland, Circa 1962

40 Pounds of Trouble is famous for the chase finale at Disneyland, approved by Walt Disney himself(around the same time he banned Alfred Hitchcock from making a movie at Disneyland because of Walt's disgust at Psycho.)

Its great seeing what is still here and what isn't, since 1962. And the "You are there POV" of the Matterhorn ride really captures that roller coaster thrill.

But if 40 Pounds of Trouble is wonderfully nostalgic at the end with Disneyland, for some of us, it is also marvelously nostalgic at the beginning -- and throughout -- with scenes at Harrah's Casino on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe is a gorgeous big lake with gorgeous blue-green water that his shared by California and Nevada. Harrah's Casino is on the Nevada side of the lake(for gambling), but the California side of the Lake is right next to it; the border is marked by a concrete post which appears in 40 Pounds of Trouble for a scene where Tony Curtis(on the Nevada side) taunts private eyes who want to serve alimony papers on him(on the California side)...with only a few inches between the men.

Indeed, 40 Pounds of Trouble opens with a car chase as one of those private eyes chases Curtis all around gorgeous Lake Tahoe at top speeds until Curtis manages to get across the border into Nevada and elude service. It becomes a fun little suspense gag for the duration of the picture -- any of Curtis' forays into California risk legal and financial doom for him. And Disneyland is in California....

Plot aside, it is great to see Harrah's Casino as it was in 1962. Lake Tahoe itself and its vistas have not changed in almost six decades...but Harrah's has. The Harrah's in the movie has a different parking lot, different interior and several different outside structures which are all gone now.

Indeed, if I get this right, the movie "fudges" a bit. We see shots of Harrah's across the street from the FICTIONAL casino run by Tony Curtis(The Del Oro or some such.) But I think Harrah's is PLAYING the Del Oro(for interior shots.) Moreover the actual Harrah's interior footage gives way to Universal soundstage sets for dialogue scenes(in Curtis' office); but you can barely tell when the changes occur.

Old movies are time machines in general, but 40 Pounds of Trouble takes us to two places that will never look like that again: Disneyland(major) and Harrah's Casino(minor, but noteable to Californians everywhere.)

As for the movie itself: its standard issue early 60's Universal stock but good. Curtis WAS a suave star(the guy you got when Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra said "no.") The little girl is cute (this is a Little Miss Marker remake.) Suzanne Pleshette(one year before getting pecked to death in Universal's The Birds for Alfred Hitchcock) is sexy. Curtis' real life pal Larry Storch(F Troop) is funny. And the supporting cast is superb and ALSO a time capsule of 1962 -- Phil Silvers(Don Rickles before Don Rickles, and just a year away from "Mad, Mad World") Kevin McCarthy(suave but not Tony Curtis handsome as the lawyer out to get alimony from Tony); Edward Andrews(ubiquitous bespectacled "the character actor's character actor" in the 60's), Howard Morris(funny)...its quite good.

But what makes this movie BETTER than good is the time capsule of beautiful Lake Tahoe, swinging Harrah's Casino, and Disneyland, all in a less populous, more innocent time in America.

PS. Note the now-poignant scene in which Tony Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette, and the little girl don mask to elude the law in Disneyland. Its 1962, so one wears Fidel Castro's face, one dons Nikita Kruschev's face, and one dons...JFK's face. The year before he was killed.