U.S. Rep. Michael (Ozzie) Myers, second from left, is recorded taking a $50,000 bribe during the FBI’s Abscam sting
Decades before becoming New To Law Vegas, I was a newspaper reporter in the Philadelphia area. In 1980 I helped cover the Abscam bribery scandal. That was an FBI sting in which agents secretly videotaped a plethora of elected officials mainly in New Jersey and Pennsylvania taking bribes to help out a phony Arab sheik. Some of the tapes became public record when they were played in open court during the resulting criminal trials, which sent nearly a dozen political heavies to prison. The scandal, which inspired the 2013 movie, “American Hustle,” is believed to be the first time the FBI used video in a big way to make criminal cases.
The TV-watching public was utterly transfixed watching actual footage of Congressmen, U.S. senators and a mayor accepting major bribes. “Money talks in this business and b—s— walks,” U.S. Rep Michael (Ozzie) Myers of Philadelphia famously declared after pocketing $50,000 of hundred-dollar bills in a New York City hotel room in 1979 (see nearby photo). He then added–somewhat less famously–“And it works the same way in Washington.”
How right he was.
The earthy video-recorded wisdom of Myers, who later went back to prison again for voter fraud but is still around at age 82, barreled back to me as I watched yet another recorded example of actual bribery–but this one this one out in the open and not secret. It was an early first-day showing yesterday of “Melania,” in a Las Vegas theater. The documentary about the First Lady and the 20 days up to Donald J. Trump’’ second inauguration on January 20, 2025, was simply terrible. It was so bad that fact alone amply supported numerous press accounts that Jeff Bezos’s Amazon wildly overpaid—a total of $75 million in rights and marketing–for the sole goal of currying favor for future regulatory actions with her husband, Donald J. Trump, again occupying the pinnacle of power in D.C.
To my mind, the documentary, directed by accused sexual harasser Brett Ratner, was awful mainly because it provided no meaningful insight about anything meaningful. Audiences are supposed to leave a documentary knowing more than they did at the beginning. I don’t care a fig if a supposedly fact-based movie is fair and balanced—the best ones often aren’t–so long as it imparts some knowledge and perspective. I don’t even mind sheer propaganda—which “Melania,” once you get past the bribery, clearly is—if it is cleverly made with high artistic attributes and has some entertainment value, crescendo, or surprise ending. Here, we know what happened at the end—Trump returns to office. “Melania” really has no plot, or point.
The film is rated PG. That’s kind. I would rate it DD, for Deadly Dull. Or QT, for Quite Tedious, which it certainly was at times.
What did I learn? Not much. Melania and Donald sleep in separate bedrooms at the White House (an implied revelation at the film’s end). Jordan’s Queen Rania, a Palestinian who grew up in the Middle East and has never resided in the U.S., speaks less-accented English than her buddy, Melania, a native of Slovenia who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and did much voice-over in the movie. Melania worries about getting shot at an inauguration parade and is relieved when it canceled due to bad weather and festivities moved indoors. She spends a lot of time fretting about her wardrobe and looking out of windows framed by gold in Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.
What to me is more interesting is what wasn’t in the documentary. Barron Trump, the towering, 19-year-old only child of Donald and Melania, is seen in various clips and is talked about a bit but not heard from at all. That might be due to gossip I have read that he speaks with a strong foreign accent like his mom. There are only fleeting glances of Ivanka Trump, Donald’s 44-year-old daughter, who is said to be in a rivalry with Melania, who at 55 is just 11 years older. Donald appears at various points, but says little of note. There is no archival footage or pictures of Melania’s previous life to speak of.
By keeping the time frame to a tight 20 days ending on Inauguration Day 2025, the movie smoothly avoids having to deal with Melania’s reaction to any number of inconvenient matters. You know, stuff like Stormy Daniels, Karen MacDougal, L. Jean Carroll, Jeffrey Epstein, the Trump University fraud, fake election fraud claims, the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol invasion at Trump’s behest, immigration-expulsion abuses, fake-news claims, the disparagement of women and her husband’s many extortion-like shakedowns toward all kinds of people, companies and, now, countries.
But at one point the movie uses as background music Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero,” popularized in the 1979 move “Ten” about a philandering husband. A subtle signal? One has to think Melania, married to Donald now for 21 years, has some strong thoughts, but they are not revealed to us.
The end of the movie consists of a written list scrolling across the screen, perhaps added or updated at the last minute, purporting to list achievements and good deeds by Melania. I found that rather pleading, and even sad.
I decided to see “Melania” after reading all kinds of so-called reviews by others who hadn’t. (This is because there was no pre-release screenings for reviewers before yesterday’s wide opening.) Still, reviews without seeing is not intellectually fair to the movie, even if some of the notices, virtually all of them negative, were hilarious. By far the funniest, of very uncertain provenance: “If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out.”
After paying the senior citizen rate of $5.50, I watched the first showing on Opening Day in a Las Vegas multiplex theater auditorium with about 120 seats. By my count 23 others were filled, maybe not such a bad turnout. From chatter I overheard, most of the audience, which seemed to be drawn from all adult age ranges, were Trump political supporters. (Even though his name adorns the top of the state’s tallest non-casino building, just off the Strip, Trump has never carried Clark County, where Las Vegas is, but took Nevada in 2024 after losing statewide in 2016 and 2020.) A woman sported a red MAGA cap. One of the very few audience giggles during the movie came from a brief news-footage clip of a clearly annoyed Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and their aides in a Capitol waiting room before the inauguration watching TV footage of the unfolding events.
No one walked out mid-movie. At the end of the 104-minute flick, there was some applause. A different woman sitting alone in the front stood up with her popcorn container, pumped her fist and shouted, “I love Trump.” I think she was referencing Donald, not Melania, but I’m not sure.
That $50,000 videotaped bribe that Ozzie Myers took in 1979 would be worth about $225,000 today. Ozzie came very cheap.
Depends on Jeff’s long-term plans. He needs a lot of fast Federal Government approvals
At least you’re only out $5.50. A much better ROI than Bezos’s, I suspect.
You are kind!
Someone, Hah! Watching the audience was interesting, more spnthan the movie.
This is hard duty. Thank you for your service.
Great post. Thank you for your insights.