Edmund Gwenn (best known as Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street) portrays another charming old man who makes ends meet by a little counterfeiting on the side. Burt Lancaster is the treasury agent set to track down the mysterious "Mr. 880," as the Secret Service calls him, but who has time for a little romance. Gwenn, as usual, is delightful and Lancaster, at the beginning of his career, shows the softer side that became more apparent toward its end. The film is a forgotten gem.
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crothman30 December 2002
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victrader8 August 2000Very Enjoyable film. Too bad Burt Lancaster didn't make more comedies - as he displays a very nice touch here, making fun of his macho image.
I didn't know anything about this film before I watched it and was pleasantly surprised. The characters are a little more "loose" or natural acting than is seen in most Hollywood fare of the time. The story concerns a secret service agent looking for counterfeiters, a translator at the United Nations, and a beloved old man. A very nice, original story.
All the actors are good - Burt, Dorothy McGuire is quite radiant and Edmund Gwynn is dynamite. I'd say he is better in this than in "Miracle on 34th Street". If you are looking for a nice movie that will put a smile on your face - you can't go wrong with this one. It'll stick with you. -
bkoganbing3 May 2006Burt Lancaster was always one who took firm control of his career. He got out of the studio system very early in Hollywood and was always the one who called his own shots. I'm guessing that he probably owed someone a favor which is why he did Mister 880.
It's not that Mister 880 is a bad film, but it's most definitely not a Burt Lancaster project. Burt and leading lady Dorothy McGuire play a definite second fiddle to Edmund Gwenn as the whimsical old neighborhood character who does some counterfeiting on the side when he runs short of money.
The title stems from the number on his file with the United States Secret Service. Mister 880 isn't even that good a counterfeiter, but his case has been put on the agency back burner for years while they assign top priority to organized gangs of counterfeiters. Gwenn does his work on cheap office supply paper with a hand press. He even spells Washington wrong on the one dollar bills he prints. And he's been getting away with it for years because of the small denominations.
McGuire comes to Lancaster's attention as she gets stuck with one of Gwenn's phonies. He's the agent who the New York office finally decided to assign to the 880 case. Of course the usual romantic complications get in the way of the case, but not forever.
Edmund Gwenn is one of those delightful character actors you cannot help but like. His charm is infectious, never more so than when he won that Oscar for Miracle on 34th Street. His character of the Skipper is in the same vein as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street.
Who could not like Edmund Gwenn and therefore who could not like Mister 880. -
planktonrules26 June 2010This is an odd movie, as it concerns a very successful counterfeiter but not in a way you'd expect. In other words, while the guy printed horrible quality money, he managed to get away with it for a decade. Why? Because instead of printing higher denominations or trying to get rich, he was just an old guy who passed phony $1 bills here and there. Oddly, he never really had much desire to hurt anyone or become a big-time crook--just do it on odd occasions to make ends meet. And, because of this odd m.o., he managed to evade detection so long. And, what makes this even more interesting is that it's all based on a true story.
The film is told mostly from the viewpoint of a Secret Service agent--played by Burt Lancaster. He was an incredibly determined agent and worked hard to capture the crook (Edmund Gwenn). But, because Gwenn plays such a nice and seemingly harmless old guy, the case drug on and on and on--as no one suspected the cute old man.
The film is very well-made and although it's not a film noir picture, it has similarities. Mostly, it's reminiscent because the story is very straight-forward--though the sentimental musical score and sympathetic telling of the story is about as far from noir as you can get! Well made and interesting. -
New York-area counterfeiter, a kindly old junk collector who means no harm, may have met his match in a new Secret Service man determined to nab the 10-year offender of phony one-dollar bills. Despite an early placard telling us the film was made with "the special permission of the Secretary of the Treasury", as well as with "the assistance of the Treasury Department of the United States Secret Service", the film is surprisingly light and blithe. Edmund Gwenn, Santa Claus in 1947's "Miracle on 34th Street", ends up before the judge again, and his sweetly honest disposition and gentle nature puts us on his side no matter what the crime. Agent Burt Lancaster, wooing Gwenn's neighbor Dorothy McGuire, is perhaps too intense an actor for such a breezy, frivolous take on this situation, yet he works well with his co-stars and has a good scene questioning some Bowery kids (Billy Gray among them). Not an important picture by any means, though mildly entertaining. Gwenn received a Golden Globe for his performance, followed by an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. **1/2 from ****
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Burt Lancaster has top billing in this film, but the plot, character and whole movie belong to Edmund Gwenn - "Mister 880." Gwenn had won the Oscar for best supporting actor in "Miracle on 34th Street" of 1947, and was nominated again for his role in this film. While he didn't win the Oscar in 1951, he did win another Golden Globe as best supporting actor, which he had also won for "Miracle" in 1947.
Gwenn's role of William "Skipper" Miller here is based on a real person, Emerich Juettner. And the movie is based on the true story of Juettner's 10 years of counterfeiting one-dollar bills, and his final discovery and prosecution. The film is based on the story written about Juettner by St. Clair McKelway and serialized in The New Yorker magazine in 1949, and later published as a book. The story is fairly accurate - Mister 880 was the file number that the Secret Service assigned for this unknown counterfeiter. Skipper's character had emigrated to the U. S. from Austria where he was born, in 1876.
The movie is centered around Burt Lancaster's role as Steve Buchanan, the Secret Service agent who handled the investigation of Mist 880. But, the real Skipper didn't get caught as in the film. The authorities hadn't been able to narrow down their search and get close to discovering who the counterfeiter was, as the movie tells it. Rather, Mister 880 was discovered after he had destroyed the plates and thrown his printing press out during the winter. And some boys found several of the bogus bills, showed them to their parents who then reported the find to the authorities..
As in the film, Mister 880 was given the sentence of 1 year and one day and a $1 fine; and he was paroled after serving 4 months. That was n 1949, and he was 73 years old. On his release, he lived five more years, dying at age 79 on Jan. 4, 1955. But the real Mister 880 married in 1902 at age 26. His wife had a son in 1903 and a daughter in 1918. She died shortly thereafter of the Spanish Flu. The movie doesn't account for Juettner's family. The Wikipedia bio doesn't have information about Juettner having served in the U. S. Navy, as the film conveys.
By casting Lancaster and Dorothy McGuire in leads and building a romance around them, 20th Century Fox was able to craft a story with enough interest and star appeal to draw fans and make a movie pay off. The character of Skipper probably was he kindly old gent as portrayed by Gwenn. The bio says that he fessed up to what he had done, as the movie shows. One would like to think that human interest stories such as this would be able to stand on their own. But, one has to trust Hollywood somewhat based on the experiences of long-time professionals working there.
So, this is still a very good story; a nice little romance and light comedy, and gentle drama about a kindly old man who broke the law to survive, but doing it in a way that no one would be terribly hurt. And, the supporting role of the movie, played superbly by Edmund Gwenn, makes the movie even after all the Hollywood embellishment and add-ons to sell the movie. -
Irie21210 September 2009I realize that 9 is an incredibly high rating, but I stand behind it. It's also high given that I was ready to bail after the first three minutes of this film-- blatant pro-Secret Service propaganda, complete with a stentorian voice-over. But then the characters show up: Burt Lancaster at his most charming, Edmund Gwenn doing his peerless benevolent eccentric, and a positively luminous Dorothy McGuire, exuding intelligence, wit, and gutsiness.
The title comes from the case file number (880) of a real-life counterfeiter—Emerich Juettner, ,a.k.a. Edward Mueller. The feds gained such respect that they called him Mr. 880—and his story deserves a film. Mueller (called "Skipper" and played by Gwenn) did indeed live in New York as a small-time counterfeiter who, amazingly, was as incompetent at etching a passable $1 bill ("George Wahsington") as he was competent at passing his queer money without detection for 10 years (1938-48).
The addition of Lancaster's and McGuire's roles is pure poetic license, but their duo only enhances the story because of the clever interlocking structure of the plot, and the often crackling dialog between them and with others, notably the wry and dry Millard Mitchell.
The hackneyed old phrase applies—I laughed (or at least smiled frequently), I cried (got teary-eyed once or twice), I got caught up in it. The point at which Burt and the feds are closing in on the dear old paperhanger, and McGuire is in a moral quandary about whether to help them or protect him, is so well done that it generated the same quandary in me—what would I have done?? It's a question I couldn't answer, and one that increased the tension that built to the courtroom scene and denouement.
"Mister 880" needs to be seen, right through to the end, which I won't spoil. But I will add a marvelous coda: Ultimately, the real Mr. 880, Juettner, made more money from this film than he did from a decade of counterfeiting—though of course, if he hadn't counterfeited there wouldn't have been a movie to profit from. So we get both poetic license and poetic justice. -
I loved this movie in the theaters when I was 7, and still loved it on reruns in the 1960's. Having run into it recently, I am sad to report that it is much more syrupy than I remembered with enough holes in the plot to build a new golf course. That being said, if you are looking to relax and be entertained by a disarmingly wry performance by Edmund Gwenn being hunted, albeit a bit too mercifully, by Fed Burt Lancaster (quite handsome in his prime), you will enjoy this. The technical information about the counterfeiting is interesting purely as historical artifacts. The performances of the supporting cast are uniformly excellent. Overall, certainly not a classic, but still hits the mark adequately as heartwarming entertainment.
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irish4426 November 1998Secret Service agent Steve Buchanan (Burt Lancaster) and the entire New York Field Office of the Secret Service have been trying for many years to track down an elusive counterfeiter who has been making poor imitations of $1 bills. The counterfeiter, called "Mister 880" by the Secret Service after the file number assigned to the case, has been passing the counterfeit $1's all over New York City for many years. Agent Buchanan notices a pattern of passing activity that follows a subway line from Manhattan to Brooklyn. He and his fellow agents "stake out" Coney Island (the next stop on the subway line) and soon develop "The Skipper" (Edmund Gwynn) as a suspect. He is a kindly old gentleman who prints only enough counterfeit money to survive. Agent Buchanan has a big heart and feels terrible about arresting The Skipper. He asks the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Judge to go easy on The Skipper. The movie is based on the true story written by St. Clair McKelway. Ironically, in real life, the Secret Service never identified the suspect, who was a "junk dealer", until a fire started in his apartment. The New York Fire Department responded and "threw out" of the apartment window all sorts of "junk" while putting out the fire. Among the items tossed out the window was a small hand operated printing press and plates for the counterfeit $1 bills. The press and the plates were found by the NYPD who called the Secret Service. But, as we know, the real story wouldn't have made such a good movie, and Lancaster and Gwynn (Oscar winner for this role) are terrific.
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law_rie15 June 1999The whisky-voiced Brit, Edmund Gwenn, didn't get the Oscar for this one....but he did receive the well-deserved trophy for his portrayal of Kris Kringle in "The Miracle on 34th Street". Sorry to nitpick..he was great in both, and Mr. Gwenn, from all I've read, when queried on his deathbed about how hard it must be to die, was the REAL originator of the oft-repeated showbiz line..."Dying is easy...comedy is hard!"
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mark.waltz29 November 2014"Mister 880" is the code word for the secret service's search for a counterfeiter who has been passing along fake $1 bills, easy to find, that is if you really look. After all, in our United States of Confusion, who hasn't wanted to misspell Washington D.C.? Here, the only way these bills can be identified are through the obvious mistake, and it is up to secret service agent Burt Lancaster to find the person responsible, because all of his colleagues from before him (including veteran Millard Mitchell) have had no luck. "879" and "881" are all closed files, simply because they were passing the big bucks, but 880 has been getting away with it, passing $1 bills around the New York City area in a pattern. When the pretty United Nations translator Dorothy McGuire is discovered to have passed two of the fake bills, Lancaster is on her trail, and in one of the film's most amusing sequences, sets out to protect her from masher Mitchell. The scene is shown from inside an art gallery as the soundless activities from Mitchell is visualized from outside. Another sequence has McGuire looking down from her apartment where Lancaster is standing outside a police car just as she has realized who the culprit for the counterfeiting is.
The audience learns really early on that the culprit is none other than the sweet "Santa Claus", Edmund Gwenn, and in this "Miracle at Washington Square", Gwenn is observed bringing McGuire a precious antique and leaving her $2 in counterfeit change in her purse. He means no harm, and in a sense, she is like a daughter to him. McGuire learns quickly that Lancaster is on her trail for reasons other than saving her from a masher and sets out to trap him in the most hysterical of ways. She utilizes old counterfeiting slang dating back to the creation of America's first currency which instantly trips him into realizing that he's been had. Then, there's his encounters with Gwenn to where he's totally fooled by this old rascal, even spending a day with him at Coney Island.
Having assumed that this was a light comedy, I was surprised to find actually that it is a charming romantic drama where a sort of unlikely fairy godfather brings two people together who are then torn apart suddenly when the truth is revealed. This isn't a great film by any means, but the performances are all solid (especially the Oscar Nominated Gwenn) and the atmosphere of post World War II New York is brilliantly documented. Mitchell's hard-boiled secret service agent is a bit of a rascal of his own, willing to get his face slapped and being labeled a pervert in order to get his job done. Little details like that make this a nice little find which I have been searching for for many years. -
Ishallwearpurple7 December 2002When I first saw this in 1950 I just loved "the Skipper" and every time I watch it, as I did yesterday, I fall again. A very good actor who just melts your heart in his characterizations.
Burt Lancaster as the Agent trying to solve an old case that has bugged the Secret Service for a decade; and Dorothy McGuire as the U.N. interpreter caught up in the investigation are fine. When they are in the restaurant purring at each other, while saying serious things about the case, it is a wonderful scene. Fine direction and acting.
I watch it as the beginning of my holiday "classic" film month. Nothing to do with Christmas, Thanksgiving or New Years. But it does end with the music to Auld Lang Sang playing in the background and the spirit is that of a holiday movie. A treat and I give it 9/10.
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MOscarbradley9 February 2022This comedy about an inept counterfeiter who manages to keep one step ahead of the law for years on end earned Edmund Gwenn an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. The stars are Burt Lancaster, (the Secret Service man on Gwenn's trail), and Dorothy McGuire, (Gwenn's friend that Lancaster falls for), and the director was Edmund Goulding who doesn't do anything special here other than keep things ticking along very nicely. If it feels 'Capraesque' at times perhaps it's because the screenplay was written by Capra collaborator Robert Riskin and maybe it's a little too gentle than it ought to be but it's well-played, (the always excellent Millard Mitchell is another Secret Service Agent), with both Lancaster and McGuire proving very adept at comedy. Not much seen now but worth seeing if you get the chance.
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sherilcarey6 January 2019I'm not sure I can pinpoint why I couldn't even finish this movie with satisfactory detailed answers. It has so many better reviews. But I found Lancaster and his leading lady mostly forgettable, not particularly believable or interesting. There were quite a few elements that seemed out-of-sync with other elements. The plot seemed full of holes to me. And I'd say it has not aged well at all. I do wish I'd been able to stick with it longer to catch more of Gwynn.
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rmax30482325 July 2015The movie opens with a fully orchestrated epic march suggesting flags and a parade of glittering bayonets. The credits seem to be stamped on iron plaques. The narrator is a Reed Hadley clone who intones staggering facts about the resources and efficiency of the Secret Service. "The Secret Service Building in Washington houses ten million daltons of nanosieverts and contains twelve thousand long tonnes of files and fingerprints." If you've seen any of the popular semi-documentaries of the immediate post-war period, like "The House on 92nd Street," it will all be familiar to you.
But -- that's not what it's about. The Intro is a fake. "All false pretenses, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long." It's not about the staunch servants of the public weal at the Secret Service after all. It's about Burt Lancaster's pursuit of shabby old Edmond Gwen who runs off a couple of dozen one-dollar bills on the hand-cranked machine in his basement whenever an emergency arises.
Gwen is so lovable, so huggable, so generous, that sometimes he slips one of his crummy old bills -- Washington is spelled Wahsington -- into the purse of his friend, the sophisticated Dorothy McGuire, and it's through her that Lancaster finds out what's going on. And the movie become a pleasant little romance with some cockle-warming humor thrown in.
The setting is New York City. I was surprised to learn that their office is located at 90 Church Street because that's where I enlisted. The photography has been influenced by the noir style and it doesn't quite fit. Night-time streets are slick, wet, empty. Shadows are stark. Old paintings in rococco frames hang from the walls. Gwen lives in a basement apartment that looks like an episode of The Hoarders, filled with ancient and spooky junk.
The imagery doesn't always mesh well with the narrative, but the director has added some nifty comic touches. There is, for instance, a silent scene, watched through a store-front window, in which Lancaster's pal pretends to hit on McGuire, so that Lancaster can come to the rescue and find out how she came to pass one of Gwen's phony bills. It's a perfectly performed two-minute silent movie.
It's a reasonably pleasant way to while away an hour or two. The romance is perfunctory and doesn't get in the way of the plot too much. And most of the gooey sentimentality is left for the last fifteen minutes, when we hear "Auld Lang Syne" on the sound track.
Let me put it this way: If you liked "Miracle on 34th Street," you'll like this because the similarities, taken together, stand out like a gastropod on its poduncle. -
JasparLamarCrabb4 July 2009A good, albeit slight movie starring Burt Lancaster as a secret service agent pursuing the elusive counterfeiter Mister 880 (named for his case number). It's old fashioned and a bit too "nice," but still entertaining. Lancaster has terrific chemistry with Dorothy McGuire (as a UN interpreter who may or may not know more than she's willing to share with Lancaster) and Edmund Gwenn is really perfect. A clever script makes for a fun game of cat and mouse (or mice). Howard St. John is also in it. Director Edmund Goulding manages to create a feel for NYC in 1950 despite being studio-bound. It is a bit like Hitchcock-lite, but still very worthy entertainment.
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JoeytheBrit28 July 2009Despite the toothsome grin and shock of wavy hair, the youthful Burt Lancaster is badly miscast in this gentle comedy which provides no real laughs as such, but does possess a light-hearted tone and a terrific performance from Edmund Gwenn.
Gwenn plays Skipper Miller, a kindly old man beloved by all his neighbours who, whenever money gets tight, prints off a few (misspelled) one dollar bills on an old hand press to make ends meet. He's been doing it for over a decade, but the treasury department has always been too busy chasing organised counterfeit rings to go after small fish like Mister 880. That is, until they draft in hot-shot agent Steve Buchanan (Lancaster) in the vague hope that he might be able to track the elusive counterfeiter down. It's difficult to see why Lancaster would have chosen to play such a role as he does here. He doesn't really have that much to do other than woo a young female friend of Skipper's (Dorothy Maguire) who was briefly in possession of one of the old man's dud notes. Lancaster had the type of frame and character that demanded roles with some action and vitality, but here he's bound within the confines of a collar and tie and he rarely looks comfortable.
With Hollywood still under the thumb of the Hays Code, there's never any doubt that the whimsical Skipper will one day have to face the music, and it's a surprise that the film's finale follows pretty closely the punishment meted out to the real counterfeiter upon whose story this film is based. It seems it's OK if a sweet old guy only steals from you one dollar at a time.
The film is OK, but it's nothing memorable, and it will fade pretty quickly from your memory. -
SAMTHEBESTEST15 February 2022Mister 880 (1950) : Brief Review -
Emerich Juettner :- perhaps, the most honest con you'll ever hear of. An unbelievable true story from both ends, positive and negative. I have never felt sympathetic towards any con since Charlie Chaplin's 'Monsieur Verdoux' (1947). That film depicted how the Depression era compelled ordinary people to commit crimes. Mister 880 is sort of similar to that theme, but it may shock you when you realise that it is based on a true story. You might not believe it for a moment, but I'm saying it from both ends, positive and negative. The positive is that it's a sensational story. But the negative looks heavier as it falls right there at the climax. You can't believe that such a big counterfeit went away with a minimum sentence. The sympathetic touch looks good in a fictional drama, but in real life, it's harmful to society, and that's why Mister 880 left me with mixed feelings. It is based on the true story of Emerich Juettner, an elderly man who counterfeited just enough money to survive, was careful where and when he spent his fake dollar bills, and was therefore able to elude authorities for ten years. How he was caught and the secret service agent's love affair are two additional fictional parts in the film. It's a pacy film of around 89 minutes, with no useless moments at all. The performances of Edmund Gwenn, Burt Lancaster and Dorothy McGuire definitely make it a good watch. It may lose the main context for some time with the charming romance between Lancaster and McGuire, but it still manages to keep the game interesting. You wonder why the guy has not been caught for years, and you have your answer lying right there in front of you throughout the film. Indeed, it makes sense. Another good film from Edmund Goulding that could have been better, but the question is how, if the true story itself is so? You can't blame Goulding for that, right? Watch it to know why.
RATING - 6.5/10*
By - #samthebestest. -
HotToastyRag10 October 2023At the U. S. Treasury Department, the Secret Service has been able to catch any number of counterfeiters, except case 880: an unidentified man who only uses small bills and rarely gets reported. Agent Burt Lancaster gets assigned to the case, and he's determined to find his man. Dorothy McGuire lives next door to a kind, old man, Edmund Gwenn. He's poor but generous, and well-liked by everyone. When they meet Burt, they each make a connection that impacts the rest of their lives.
Mister 880 is a very sweet old classic. Yes, it's a bit predictable, but that's part of its heartwarming charm. You don't have to sit on the edge of your seat, worrying whether the good guys are going to triumph. You can just relax, enjoy a love story that's easy to root for, and hope that the very best happens to Santa Claus. In an interesting bit of trivia, Walter Huston was signed on for Gwenn's role, but he died before filming began. It would have been a very different interpretation, but still a lovable one. -
Catherine-Yronwode3 July 2015Okay, i'll admit i watched this on Youtube because it was free, and the first thing that LEAPED out at me was Skipper the dog -- i took one look at this animal and said to my husband, "I will bet you five dollars that Frank Inn trained that dog." By that time the dog was showing major dog-acting talent and he said, "I won't take that bet." The dog looks just like a larger version of Higgins, the dog that played Benji, also trained by Frank Inn, but it was not just the look, it was the way the dog was trained to be cued by the actors that shouted "I am a Frank Inn dog."
And then we saw Herb Vigran -- a guy who has been in practically every movie and TV show for which Frank Inn trained animals, from Petticoat Junction to Hawmps! Major AHA moment there. So we stopped the film and looked it up. Bingo. Frank Inn trained Skipper. Case solved!
Meanwhile., back at the movie, Secret Service agent Burt Lancaster is snooping around and falling in love with the lovely United Nations translator Dorothy McGuire. What a delightful couple they are -- and she is so witty and smart -- a great role for this under-appreciated actress. Will Lancaster let his monomaniacal desire to catch Mister 880, the counterfeiter, ruin his chances at love? Will McGuire solve the crime before he does? This is a cute and touching story, with Edmund Gwenn in the title role, displaying both his native proper English, and a flawless German accent as well. -
Turfseer13 October 2022Mister 880 is one of the more unusual crime dramas you'll ever see. It stars Burt Lancaster as Secret Service Agent Steve Buchanan assigned to capturing a counterfeiter based in NYC who eluded capture for ten years.
The narrative is based on the true story of Emerich Juettner, an elderly junk dealer of German extraction who spent no more than $50 per month passing poorly made counterfeit one-dollar bills basically for pocket money.
Considerable resources were put into the capture of "Mister 880," the nickname given to Juettner who was Case #880 in The Treasury Department files.
Given that there were so many other cases of much larger import to deal with, one can only conclude that the main reason the Secret Service was so obsessed in capturing Juettner was because they felt miffed that they had been outwitted by such a small-time operator for such a long period of time.
In the film Juettner is called "Skipper" Miller and he successfully eludes the Secret Service by passing his forged notes all over the city. The film is a fictionalized account of what actually happened and it's to the credit of Robert Riskin's screenplay that the fictional story holds our interest throughout the narrative.
Riskin accomplishes this by inventing a female interest for Buchanan, Ann Winslow (Dorothy McGuire), a UN French interpreter who initially becomes a suspect after we observe how Skipper-Ann's neighbor in an apartment building-places two counterfeit bills in her purse as change for a cheap "antique" he sells to her.
I got a real kick out of seeing Ann working at the UN's first location in New York which I believe was the New York Pavilion (from the 1939-1940 World's Fair) in Flushing Meadow Park (instead of the present UN headquarters location on the eastside of Manhattan).
Director Edward Goulding does a great job in creating a scene without spoken dialogue from the angle of inside a dress shop looking out on to the street where Steve pretends to come to Ann's rescue as his partner Mac McIntire (Millard Mitchell) pretends to make unwanted moves toward her.
Ann neatly figures out that Steve is a Secret Service agent and soon a romance develops where there's real chemistry between the two starring thespians. Later there's some tension between the two when Skipper's identity is finally uncovered, and Ann doesn't want to turn the old codger in fearing he'll be given a long prison sentence.
Despite knowing who the counterfeiter is from almost the very beginning, the methods Steve employs to try and capture Skipper prove riveting. Skipper passes counterfeit bills right in front of the agents' eyes while accompanying Steve and Ann on a trip to Coney Island among other places but he continues to elude capture by complete coincidence.
Finally, a bunch of kids are caught passing Skipper's bills from a cache they discover near Skipper's buried printing press who he rather humorously refers to as "Cousin Henry." Skipper buried the press after he realizes the authorities are on to him.
The climax involves how the judge will decide Skipper will be sentenced. Liberal crusader Lancaster again finds the perfect role in Steve-the hard-bitten law enforcement agent who ends up appealing for mercy using the judge's own words found in a book written by him.
Edmund Gwen (famous for his role as Santa in Miracle on 34th Street) garnered a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the befuddled but kindly Skipper.
As it turns out the judge's initial decision to mercifully give him 9 months is changed to a little over a year-State time instead City so that he'll be eligible for parole after only four months.
Mister 880 proves to be a charming, offbeat tale which will hold your interest throughout. It's mainly the clever writing that keeps things afloat buttressed by the strong acting of the principals. -
Falkenberg200624 December 2007This film is shown so rarely as to be virtually unknown. Like a number of black and white films, it does not get seen anymore and when I have mentioned it to people they have NEVER heard of it.
Twentieth Century Fox should release this on DVD, if they haven't already.
I believe Turner Classic Movies may have shown it once.
It is great fun and I think everyone will enjoy it.
Lancaster plays a Secret Service agent is driven crazy as he tries to track down a counterfeiter who has eluded the government for years and Gwenn's performance is a delight. His rationale for counterfeiting makes perfect sense, but drives a judge and Lancaster crazy.
The movie is dated with the passage of time, but it is fascinating to see how the Secret Service of the day tracked down counterfeiters and the New York of the early 50s.
I also seem to recall this movie had an Oscar nomination too, but I could be wrong.
george senda martinez, ca -
thomasherlihy26 April 2020Mister 880 portrays two morals, each of which is summed up by a quotation in the movie. The first moral is demonstrated when Dorothy McGuire says "A task left undone creates a void that no amount of achievement can fill." Through Burt Lancaster's character, this movie showed the importance of not giving up, but having patience and perseverance. The second moral is portrayed when Burt Lancaster repeats the quote "justice is too often administered by fixed rules without regard for the feelings of the human mind or the charity of the human heart." Without giving out any spoilers, I'll just say that the movie did a good job illustrating this point.
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obrienpat20 November 2013It appears that TCM chopped the ending out of its showing of the Burt Lancaster movie, Mister 880 tonight, Nov. 20th. There must have been some programming problem, but it was startling. Lancaster was excellent and Edmund Gwenn was perfect in the part of the old man passing counterfeit money. Right now, we are frustrated. When you sign on to a TCM showing, you assume the network cares enough about its own choices to give you the entire story. Evidently not. At least not tonight. They chopped it and sailed on. Why? This is the first time that has happened when we've been watching. Will someone please tell us how the movie ended?