All the Queen's Horses

source: All the Queen's Horses

I believe about ten percent of the information in this film. After I heard the name Mahoney, it was a downhill slide from there.

I saw the movie and enjoyed it, but I have a few questions: 1. Did the City of Dixon have a certified audit of their city performed by a CPA firm? If yes...why wasn't the fraud discovered from the audit? If no...why didn't they have one? 2. Was Rita bonded? If yes...did the City recover any of the stolen funds from the bonding company? If not...WHY NOT? common sense to have people bonded who are entrusted with large amounts of money.

Oh Rita? Such an impressive woman In the show-horse arena. How is someone with so much to lose, able to continue in her nefarious behavior without pulling back on the reigns? Simply amazing! This has to be a kleptomaniac world record. And the lack of detection by the other authorities seems to be the height of dereliction. This story is quite interesting and kept my attention throughout. I only wish the producers could have gotten some interviews from the culprits who ended up paying in the end. It is deeply disturbing that something like this could actually happen. Don't people know that God sees all and has the power to cast them into hell? Good grief!!! Wake up folks.

We studied this story in a Corruption class of how Rita Crundwell stole over 50 million dollars from her tiny hometown over 20 years. This documentary laid it all out so well though. With the actual people who worked beside her (hat off to coworker Kathe Swanson who discovered the massive theft!) telling the story plain and simple. That is the importance of this documentary. It was so easy for Rita to do this. We all need to learn from this. I really appreciated how this story was told start to finish seamlessly. The selling of the quarter horses was heartbreaking. The actual footage really made this film.

One of my friends is currently serving time in the same prison as Rita, so naturally I was interested in this documentary. At just 70 minutes in length, it held my attention throughout - especially as the incredible details of Rita's fraud were revealed. Even though the details of white collar crimes can often be a little difficult to comprehend, this documentary explained the fraud in an easy-to-understand way. Don't worry, you don't need to be a CPA! $53 million stolen over 20 years. That alone is quite a remarkable feat, and at first I couldn't help be impressed at the sheer magnitude of the crime - in a similar way in which I was impressed with the sheer brazenness of Frank Abagnale Jr in 'Catch Me If You Can'. Then the job-cuts, debt, and other cost-cutting impacts on the city of Dixon were revealed - and I fully understood how bad it all was, and the devastating ripple effect of this woman's actions. I felt the film could've delved deeper into the impact on the every day Dixon resident, while also exploring what (from my perspective) seems like an almost compulsive addiction influencing Rita's behaviour. Her unwillingness to partake in the film no doubt impacted the latter. It dragged slightly towards the end - but even so, I couldn't help but feel frustration at the massive number of people who failed to do their jobs properly, which would've uncovered Rita's simple frauds early-on. Had they done that, less money would have been embezzled, the city of Dixon would've suffered less and Rita would have already done her time and moved on in life.

Glad I watched it. It should probably be required watching for every small town in America. Too easy to steal, apparently.

I was quite happy to see this film pop up on Netflix and was anxious to view it after remembering the initial breakout of the story on the Internet and never hearing anything further about what happened to the woman. But my girlfriend checked IMDB, read me the review by 'heathrocksla' and we quickly decided to take a pass on it. Oddly enough, the very next day my girlfriend suddenly remembered a hair salon appointment she had made and I was stuck at her place alone with nothing to do, so, I decided to take a chance on the film. And I'm sure glad I did! I kept waiting for the annoying issues that 'heathrocksla' fumed about to show up but they never really did. What unfolded was an excellent documentary, well written, well paced, well researched and most enjoyable to watch. Yes, there was a scene where the subject being interviewed suddenly pushed himself forward in his chair and the camera operator had to refocus, but it was quickly done and the interview continued without incident. And, yes, again, the filmmaker did have a few shots of herself as a 'talking head' but I'm sure after preparing to make the movie she had become a worthwhile, knowledgeable expert on the subject matter, knew what she was talking about and was quite 'easy on the eyes' to boot, so, what's the big deal? In short - All the Queen's Horses is a fine, clear, concise, professionally produced documentary that is well worth your time and energy to watch - Please don't short change it because of one unfair review.

This was an excellent documentary on how people can totally miss the obvious AND show the greatest of malfeasance. Some comments were made about the poor cinematic effort but that is totally missing the point of the documentary. Forget the camera 'angles' and concentrate on the subject at hand. A person was able to abuse her power for over 20 years and no one caught her in the act until a total fluke exposed the house of cards. Based on my over 45 years of financial management experience, there were many, many culpable people that should have discovered this much sooner. Good financial management and oversight would have prevented this right from the beginning. The people of the town suffered because of the extremely poor management by the city council. And then on top of that they had a very poor and maybe the worst example of financial oversight by a CPA firm I have ever seen. As I mentioned, I spent 45 years in senior level financial management assignments and I saw a great deal of insider and criminal activity. This was nothing new, but it did show how stupidity, incompetence, and ignorance aided in taking this to the level it did. People should watch this show for the very reason stated at the end - it is an on going issue and someone somewhere will try it again.