**MILD SPOILERS** I personally know of no one, other than myself, who has heard of this movie, let alone watched it. Miss Tatlock's millions in no way deserves to be relegated to obscurity. It's genuinely funny, sidesplittingly so at several junctures. John Lund (who plays an obscure actor) is hired to play the part of a long "lost" relative who has just inherited the "millions" in the title. Actually, this relative happens to be more than a little daft--a pyromaniac (a comic pyromaniac, of course, who goes about singing, "I Just Want To Set the World On Fire") who has spent 20 years or so in an insane asylum. The mayhem that follows is quite fun--and needless to say, there is the usual love interest, the confession that he is not what he seems, the rejection, the reconciliation, and (no surprise) the sudden appearance of the real heir. Obviously, it isn't the plot elements that make this worth watching--it's the hilarity gleaned from the trip. It certainly isn't a masterpiece, but it IS worth retrieving from the abyss of forgotten movies. 8/10
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twm-214 May 2004
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This movie I saw on the late show when I was a boy. It was quite late and I snuck into the living room and joined my father to watch TV. How ever I was laughing so hard at this movie it woke my mother, who thought I was in bed. So I missed the ending. I still remember it and that has been almost 40 years. The dialog was fast and funny anchored on an unusual plot. I only wish that It was available now so I could see how it ended.
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Doylenf8 August 2001Saw this one years ago and thought it was an uproarious screwball comedy with the talented John Lund doing wonders with his role, pretending to be a bumbling idiot. He is doing his "act" in order to help Wanda Hendrix inherit her millions. Directed by the wonderful actor, Richard Haydn with a wonderful cast, including Robert Stack, Ilka Chase and Monty Woolley.
John Lund was an excellent actor who never found his true potential on film--an actor with a Broadway background who won him his first screen role opposite Olivia de Havilland in 'To Each His Own'.
But here his comic timing is perfect. In 'The Perils of Pauline' he was merely a foil for the antics of Betty Hutton--but here he has the primary comic role and he does a smashingly good job. Too bad more couldn't be made of his multi-talents in later films.
Where is the video version? Another great Paramount film never transferred to home video. -
howardeisman15 February 2012I saw this movie on its release when I was about 12 years old. It was a wild riot, and a big neighborhood hit. Kids would be singing "I don't want to set the world on fire" in school. That was it! If it reappeared on TV in the 60's, I wasn't watching TV then, so I only had the late 40s memory of it. Lately, I started wondering how the movie would affect me today, but it had disappeared. I assumed that the movie was a victim of political correctness; it had probably been pulled from circulation because the lead character imitated a developmentally disordered/cognitive impaired psychotic person.
However, after some internet searching, I got a good enough copy to view.
It is a mild enough comedy. As a child, I was convulsed at the weird behavior of Skylar. This must have been why I remembered it as being so funny. Today, it seems that John Lund did a Jerry Lewis type bit before Jerry Lewis became famous doing it. So, now, the crazy guy didn't seem all that wildly crazy after all those years of watching Jerry Lewis doing the same shtick Still. There are funny lines, good performances, and a tight script..and...wasn't Wanda Hendrix super cute? That must have also affected me when I was 12. Oh, yeah! -
eschetic-29 May 2010MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS just misses genuine classic status despite the ministrations of some of the best in the studio system - a screwball comedy which remains a little too sane for too much of the time - and the problems are essentially at the undeniably entertaining top.
John Lund, making his first real impact in Hollywood, came to the task with solid Broadway training from Shakespeare (an AS YOU LIKE IT in 1941) to musicals (a NEW FACES revue as writer and performer! and the Fatts Waller hit EARLY TO BED in 1943) to the play which made him a star, THE HASTY HEART (in 1945). Unfortunately, Hollywood never quite knew how to take advantage of this wealth of talents packaged in a slightly bland handsome face. When they got around to filming THE HASTY HEART in 1949, Ronald Reagan was in Lund's role while Lund was stuck in another "wacky" comedy, MY FRIEND IRMA.
Here, made up to look like Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY, he is directed to give a version of the persona Jerry Lewis would torture a generation of film goers with when he got to Hollywood in the "crazy" half of Lund's dual role of a Hollywood stuntman hired to impersonate a missing heir only to fall in love with his "sister."
The titular "Miss Matlock" is another studio near miss, Wanda Hendrix who, after a dozen so-so films would become a television regular, but here gives a very pleasant impersonation of Jean Arthur. Her grasping relatives are trying to foist her off on a somewhat slimy cousin (an almost too pleasantly suave Robert Stack) while Lund, playing the "emotionally challenged" brother who has actually inherited her millions, longs for her.
Where the film absolutely shines however is in the solid studio line up of supporting players who consistently spin gold out of dross. From Barry Fitzgerald as Lund's slightly larcenous "keeper" to Monty Wolly as a fully larcenous uncle, Ilka Chase, Dorothy Stickney, Leif Erickson, Dan Tobin and actor/director Richard Haydn (the first of three directoral efforts - it was not his greatest strength), the solid comedic underpinnings of the film very nearly make up for any other weaknesses of style.
Still there IS that style. Charles Brackett (midway in a 35 year career that included such genuine screen writing classics as NINOTCHKA and SUNSET BOULEVARD) and his frequent collaborator Richard Breen, just starting his, with the unbilled input of the cream of the studio contract writers - all "names" today - turned Jacques Deval's Broadway flop OH, BROTHER! (23 performances at the Royale Theatre, June 19-July 7,1945) into something almost unrecognizable - bigger and probably better - but the great cinematographer Charles Lang (17 nominations and one Oscar for A FAREWELL TO ARMS) makes the film (at least in the excellent print seen) look more like the 1945 AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (a classic Agatha Christie mystery) than a bright, crisp screwball comedy - an impression not diminished by the presence of Fitzgerald and Haydn in both films.
It IS definitely a film to seek out and enjoy. It may be slight and not as funny as the studio promotion (which tried to paint it as "'Funnier than Bergan in long underwear' -Charley MacCarthy") would have liked (until the last 10 minutes, which are everything a screwball fancier could wish!), but it is charming and consistently entertaining. Not a classic, but a lot of diverting fun. -
luannjim20 January 2003I'm told that when "Miss Tatlock's Millions" came out in 1948, it was a medium-size hit that had a small but extremely loyal cult following (sort of like the original "Bedazzled" in 1967). It's too bad that it's now almost completely forgotten -- a result of having never come out on video (except for a poor-quality bootleg dupe), a fate it shares with many late '40s Paramounts -- "The Great Gatsby," "The Big Clock," "Alias Nick Beal," and others. Like them, "Miss Tatlock's Millions" was long a staple of late-show TV but has now seemingly dropped off the face of the earth.
"Miss Tatlock's Millions" is, not to mince words, a riot. Another commenter here compares it to Preston Sturges, something that had never occurred to me before but which is very apt. It has the same kind of screwball pacing, distinctive characters, and brilliant dialogue (of course, Sturges remains peerless, but this one is in the same tradition and a very respectable specimen).
John Lund is wonderful as the fake "Skylar" and it's a pity he didn't get more challenges like this. I think he was a victim of his own good looks; the gang at Paramount decided he was a wooden pretty-boy, so that's all they gave him to do. But he sure delivers the goods here.
And the rest of the cast! Monty Woolley, Ilka Chase, Robert Stack, Barry Fitzgerald, Dan Tobin, Dorothy Stickney. That bunch would be fun to watch in anything, but give them Charles Brackett's dialogue and the combination is unbeatable. (The film, by the way, has at least one line that was, for a while anyhow, quite famous and oft-quoted by people who had no idea where it came from. Spoken by Monty Woolley: "I hate California. It's the only place on earth where you can fall asleep under a rosebush in full bloom and freeze to death.")
As the comments here attest, there is no one who's seen "Miss Tatlock's Millions" who doesn't love it and remember it as one of the funniest movies they ever saw. The only reason it's not up there with the great comedies -- the only reason, for example, that it placed nowhere on AFI's list of the (supposed) 100 greatest comedies -- is that not enough people have seen it.
Bring it back! -
bkoganbing13 March 2018The Tatlock Family who are a more comic version than the greedy grasping Hubbards of The Little Foxes are most concerned about the will of their family patriarch who didn't think all that much of them. Brothers Monty Woolley and Dan Tobin and their sister Ilka Chase are as grasping a trio as you'll ever find. And like the Hubbards, Ilka Chase is the most ruthless of the lot.
The only nice one is the daughter of a deceased son and his wife Wanda Hendrix. She's not quite of age and that's a recipe for intrigue.
There's another joker in this deck, a literal one. Hendrix has an older brother who is the village idiot. I actually knew someone like that and like the Tatlocks his parents kept him far away and on some tight purse strings.
Now he has to be produced for the reading of the will. But there's a problem with family retainer Barry Fitzgerald who took the idiot to Hawaii. He's believed dead and Fitzgerald has been lying for about two years and living off the stipend.
Whereupon Fitzgerald hits on the solution to find someone who can pass and it's movie stunt man John Lund. But a lot of things interfere in this scheme not the least of which is Lund falling for Hendrix.
This comedy is skillfully directed by Richard Haydn who reserved himself a nice small role as the lawyer for the estate. John Lund whose forte really is not physical comedy does his best and is reasonably successful. Ironically though the following year that Miss Tatlock's Millions came out there arrived at Parmount just the actor for the role.
This would have been a great Jerry Lewis vehicle either for himself later on in his career or with Dean Martin possibly playing Fitzgerald's part. You watch Lund's more strenuous routines and you'll agree I'm sure.
There's also a nice role for Robert Stack, Chase's spoiled son and Hendrix's cousin who'd like to tie up that end of the inheritance with a wedding ring. A surprise for Stack who usually played nice guys on the big and the small screen.
Miss Tatlock's Millions has retained its laugh quotient after 70 years. Try to see this one. -
theowinthrop25 February 2006John Lund always gave a good performance, but for some reason he was always relegated to background acting: that is he was present, frequently in the lead male part, but somehow his role did not stand out enough to be recognized. His first big film was TO EACH HIS OWN where he played two roles - a World War I American ace who meets the heroine, Olivia De Haviland, while on a bond drive in upstate New York, has a passionate, brief affair with her, gets killed, and reappears some twenty years later as his own illegitimate son, raised as an adopted child by De Haviland's neighbors. It should have been the role(s) to establish him - but it didn't, because the bulk of TO EACH HIS OWN was De Haviland's part as the mother who loses her son. In fact, the son is played by a child actor, for part of the film - and is more memorable to the audience than Lund.
His banner year would be 1948. He appeared in two films that year that showed his acting strengths: A FOREIGN AFFAIR with Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur (directed by Billy Wilder), and this film, MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS. A FOREIGN AFFAIR is a wonderful comedy of post-war Berlin by Wilder, with Lund as an army black marketeer who is trying to protect himself and his girlfriend (Marlene) from a Congressional junket investigating black marketeers (including Jean). He does very nicely in the comic bits, misleading and confusing Arthur, and slowly becoming aware that he may be giving misplaced protection to a former Nazi supporter (Dietrich). But the real stars are Arthur (doing crazy undercover investigation) and Dietrich (given several good Frederick Hollander numbers to sing. And Wilder's screenplay with Charles Brackett, as well as his direction are overwhelming on Lund too.
But Lund does dominate (wisely) MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS, as the Hollywood stuntman turned fake heir. Richard Haydn (in one of his rare directing jobs) allowed Lund to take off on the eccentric "Schuyler" Tatlock, who loves to set fires, and wants to make his sister (Wanda Hendrix) happy. Schuyler escapes from his "keeper" Barry Fitzgerald, and apparently perished in a fire. But this was before the death of his grandparents, and he is one of the heirs to their fortune, much to the disgust of his aunt and two uncles (Ilka Chase, Monty Wooley, and Dan Tobin). Ilka would also like to keep Wanda's share of the fortune close to home by marrying her to her son Robert Stack.
There is a fly in the ointment. Fitzgerald has been keeping mum about the demise of Schuyler because it allowed him to live on his salary in the South Sea island they lived on. Now is his day of reckoning, and to prevent it he discovers that Lund (a Hollywood stuntman) looks like Schuyler. So he makes a business proposition: play the role of Schuyler for a week or so, until the will is read, and then "return" with Fitzgerald to the South Seas. Lund agrees to this - and then learns it's easier to assume a role sometimes than to drop it.
For one thing, he (unlike the real Schuyler) understands human nature. He is supposed to be a half-wit, so everyone (but Wanda) treats him with a bare contempt. And he resents it, and manages (while maintaining his act) to humiliate them. For a second thing, he finds he's physically and emotionally attracted to Wanda - and he detests Stack. Finally, the family lawyer (Haydn, in a nice cameo), reveals that the bulk of the fortune was given to Schuyler, rather than to the others. This certainly means that Fitzgerald cannot drag such a wealthy figure back to their former island home.
An accidental fall, causing Lund to momentarily sound normal, also adds to the problems. The new "normal" Schulyer Tatlock is able to communicate his feelings to Hendrix - although his ultimate feelings have to be hidden, as an incestuous relationship is impossible.
This comedy finally enabled Lund to show he was not just a dependable male lead. He was shown to be capable of insane comic antics as Schuyler. The result was a pleasure up to the satisfactory conclusion of the comedy. It was John Lund's finest hour on screen. -
Minor movie actor John Lund finished up another day on the set and out of the blue is approached by a stranger (Barry Fitzgerald) who asks him to pose as a missing member of a wealthy family. The reason? To get his hands on the share of the missing relative whom he supposedly resembles. This also means acting like a lunatic, lighting curtains on fire, follow relatives around inceccintly, and repeat nonsensical babble over and over. Reunited with the "family" (which includes veteran character actors Monty Woolley, Elizabeth Patterson, Dorothy Stickney and ilka Chase), he also gets to meet a younger "sister" (Wanda Hendrix) who is entranced by him, causing him to fall for her as well. When attorney Richard Haydn announces that all of the estate has been left to Lund, the greed of the others (with the exception of Hendrix) is revealed, and the desperation of Fitzgerald to wrap up the scam and get out.
"You are the first person in history to make Lucretia Borgia look like a bobby soxer", Woolley tells one of the harpy relatives with his typical Sheridan Whiteside wit, giving much emphasis to simple lines that in other hands would have been meaningless. Fitzgerald is a lovable rascal, subtle in his attempts to con the family, while Stickley and Chase seem so much like sisters that it becomes a distant memory that they were later in the original TV version of "Cinderella" together. But it is the handsome Lund, briefly a leading actor after "To Each Their Own", who gets the acting honors, really changing his looks when he acts like the mentally challenged relative. Smartly written and directed by Richard Haydn, this is one of those forgotten comedies much in need of being discovered. -
planktonrules18 September 2017The film begins with Mr. Noonan (Barry Fitzgerald) and offering Tim Burke (John Lund) a proposition. He wants Burke to impersonate Schuyler Tatlock...a rich but thoroughly insane young man. It seems that Noonan has been paid to care for this man but there was a fire and Schuler was killed. Now, in order to prevent his monthly stipend check from stopping, he convinced Burke to pretend to be him at a family get together. The problem is that this get together turns out to be for the reading of a will...and Schuyler turns out to be the sole heir! Now, the family who mostly despised him and was happy to ship him off to Hawaii to live with Noonan is beside themselves...and they pretend to care about Schuyler. In the meantime, Burke is tired of playing crazy and arranges to bump his head and effect a full recovery. What's next? Burke/Schuyler realizes he's fallen in love.
As Schuyler, Burke is an incredibly loud, boorish and obnoxious person. He runs around acting mentally infirmed and lighting fires. This seems incredibly insensitive and also stupid, as arson isn't particularly funny. In fact, most of the time Schuyler is on screen, you really, really hate him and SHOULD hate him as he's a thoroughly one-dimensional jerk...so much so that the film grated on me. It did improve as it went along...but it was hard sticking with this one because Schuyler was THAT awful and detestable. Overall, an okay film and not anything more simply because Schuyler's character was so incredibly overplayed, one-dimensional and boorish. -
marilynhenry20 January 2005This remains my all-time favorite comedy. Has been since it's release in 1948. I had been a fan of John Lund for some time, but never realized he had this enormous gift for comedy. I mean, he is amazing, wild, hilarious--and romantic!
Paramount Studios was the home of most of my favorite actors back in my twice-a-week movie going days and I seldom missed one of their movies. This one proved to be far above all expectations!
From the moment we see Ray Milland replacing our feckless hero in a staged stunt on a Hollywood sound stage, we are hooked. 'Lower me gently, boys,' Milland instructs, as the already forgotten stunt man has to brush himself off after painfully setting the scene of a high fall. Enter Barry Fitzgerald and an intriguing proposal.
Skeptical at first, Lund gets into character with a vengeance as the story progresses and his impersonation of the loony Tatlock heir is alternately petted and put-down by various greedy family members. Monty Wooley is priceless, Ilka Chase perfect in her snobby zingers. Even she admits that her darling son Niki (Stack) has much charm but it wears off too quickly. When she sics Niki on Wanda Henricks, the innocent youngest Tatlock, Lund goes into gear!
Richard Hayden, that master of sly comedy, not only directs but also appears in a short role that adds to his luster as a character actor. In fact, he seems to have the perfect cast to work with here.
From midnight bloomings in a greenhouse, to sunny revelations on a beach in Maui, this is one fast-paced, hilarious, and oh-so-witty film. I have NEVER understood its obscurity. It is a gem. -
myriamlenys13 January 2020The addled descendant from a rich family disappears, presumably as a consequence of his sad attraction to matches. His carer, who is very well paid indeed, pretends the young man is still alive, so that he can continue to receive the usual fat checks. When the whole clan gathers in order to discuss wills and testaments, the young man too is supposed to show up. In despair, the carer searches for someone who looks just like the late pyromaniac. A poverty-stricken stuntman seems to do the trick...
"Millions" is a fine, sparkling comedy - at least as long as the viewer doesn't start to worry about some of the undercurrents. Once this happens, the movie threatens to become sinister and oppressive rather than funny. For instance : the ending alone, when looked at in a certain light, is enough to keep a whole team of psychiatrists busy.
Still, there's good fun to be had as long as one is capable of avoiding that "certain light". The stuntman hero/antihero finds himself dropped in the middle of a scheming family seething with envy and greed, which leads to a number of memorably sharp zingers and one-liners. The movie is also a pretty astute satire about the habits of the very rich. For instance, "difficult" relatives get sent away to some distant island paradise, complete with expensive nurses and carers, so that the rest of the family can ignore and forget them completely. It's the platinum credit card version of abandonment.
People interested in a somewhat similar subject matter might want to watch "Brat Farrar", with a young Mark Greenstreet in a double role. "Brat Farrar", based on a novel by author Josephine Tey, tells the story of a long-lost heir, believed dead, who shows up just in time to claim a whopping inheritance. It's not a comedy but a thriller, and a good thriller at that. (Wrote a small review there too.) -
starcommand8 October 2014You could make a comedy featuring an arsonist in 1948, but you definitely cannot do that today. That is why this film has been indefinitely shelved by whichever corporate entity owns the copyright to it. Other reviewers of this title have wondered why it is not available. It is NOT, as one speculated, because the actor-impersonator indulges in stereotypical mentally-challenged behavior. There are lots of movies available on video featuring comic portrayals of what we know today to be mental illness. It is because of the arson. You can not have acts of arson portrayed in a comedy, because it is not in the least bit funny.
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CAMiller11 March 2004I originally saw this film when it first came to television in the 1960s... I was a 9 year old kid at the time, and I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen--which was probably quite right, considering everything else that passed for TV comedy in the 1960s was a reworked hodgepodge of stale vaudeville routines. Since then, to my knowledge, "Miss Tatlock's Millions" has not reappeared on broadcast TV, not on cable, not on satellite.
For all practical purposes, this movie had been entombed in some chilly crypt, far from the reach of mainstream entertainment. In fact, if my mother (now in her 70s) had not recently mentioned the name "Schuyler Tatlock"--referring to an idiotic person--I myself may have completely forgotten the movie, as well.
Schuyler (pronounced Skyler), you see, is the gravitational center of this 1948 black & white offbeat comedy... Which is pretty odd, when you know the whole story, because the character of Schuyler Tatlock dies 2 years before the film even begins.
Suffice to say that Schuyler Tatlock is IMPERSONATED by a reluctant impostor for the duration of the film--and you can understand his reluctance when you understand that the late Schuyler Tatlock was a brain-damaged, gibbering lunatic with a penchant for arson. When the straight-laced impostor asks for pointers, he's instructed: "You'll be impersonating a man who once broke up a Thanksgiving dinner because he thought HE was the turkey. Gobble-gobble."
That should be a clue as to where the story is headed.
The film moves at an alarming pace, with twists and turns, action, some great dialogue and comic bits that grab your attention every few seconds. AND, above all, there is a really WEIRD sexual tension: The Schuyler impostor falls in love with Schuyler's younger sister (who is also being seduced by her cousin), and SHE falls in love with the impostor even as he is impersonating her brother!
I know, it sounds incredibly convoluted--and it is--but the charming thing about this film is how its many complexities are cleverly remedied to the viewer's complete satisfaction. The seemingly incestuous love triangle MAY be the reason that "Miss Tatlock's Millions" has been locked away for so many decades, even though there is no actual incest in the story... I think... In any event, this is a sweet, sexy, smart and very, very entertaining comedy that is entirely TOO HARD to find.
There is at least one VHS dealer online who carries a really awful recording of the movie for less than $20; but, trust me, you're not going to find a better copy (or even ANOTHER copy) of this film ANYWHERE. Believe me, I know. Even with terrible video tracking, "Miss Tatlock's Millions" is worth the purchase. -
mrsboops10 November 2004In 1948, I saw this movie with friends, not expecting much. I went in not knowing much about the actors and came out howling with glee at the sparkling writing, crisp direction, romantic story and most of all the peerless company of scene-stealing character actors. Now, I was very young at the time so I probably couldn't have told you then exactly why I would never forget it until I became a film buff years later.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent video available. I recently bought one at Amazon and it is of the same poor, frustrating quality as the one that occasionally pops up on late night TV.
This is the gem that got away and deserves to be recognized. Anyone know someone with clout at AMC?? -
lunzy24 November 1999This movie has to be right up there as an all time Classic Comedy.Great acting by John Lund and Barry Fitzgearld.One of my favorites.This movie also has a good music score.Again I saw this on a late show and have not been able to locate it since.I even wrote to American Movie Classics and Turner Movies Classics and inquired when they would be airing it.I'm still looking to see it listed.Once again a great classic movie.
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JRamsey0008 May 2023With a cast as good as this one you would expect a better product. The script was annoyingly ridiculous. The character of Skyler too over the top, and that behavior went on waayyy too long. The plot of his sister being pushed to marry her cousin should've been incestuous enough. But no, they have her fall in love with the man that she thought was her brother. Yuck. Creepy is the best word I can apply to it. When she reveals she knows his true identity, she is kissing all over him while still pretending he is her brother. Off putting. It could've been written that he was a relation not by blood at least. Ugh Hollywood!
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mauieast16 April 2004I was only 5 when the movie was made so I probably saw it on TV as a re-run when I was a teen or young adult. Somehow I never forgot the title, or that I thought it was very funny. I bought a copy of it (not a very good copy, but watchable) and took it along to share with a good friend in Maui. She loved it and especially that part of it takes place in Maui. (I had forgotten that.) One of the cast members is Hilo Hattie. I wish that whoever, in the movie industry, owns it would see that it gets restored so it can be shared by movie lovers everywhere. Robert Stack and John Lund were both very handsome leading men, and Ilka Chase and Monty Wooley were great character actors.
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nixxnutz4 February 2003At age 14, I saw this movie in a theater when it was new in 1948, and I have never forgotten it. Yes, it's funny, but it's also very romantic at the end. I think it was the best film John Lund ever made. I would love to see it again. If anybody out there has any influence on what goes on video, please push for this wonderful cinematic gem.
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paulhboyer20 August 2005This movie is a dandy. Itis extremely underrated,and even more difficult to find. I happen to have a poor copy on VHS. Watch it if you have the opportunity.A classic screwball comedy, with a great cast,Barry Fitzgerald is top notch as usual, in a supporting role. This is a movie that deserves to be restored, shown on Turner Classic Movies, and given the respect it should have been given years ago.This is a perfect example of "they don't make em like that anymore". I first viewed this movie when I was about ten years old. Naturally I was curious to see if time and maturity had changed my mind. It hadn't. John Lund and Wanda Hendrix never achieved stardom, this movie would have advanced that cause.Made in the late forties it embodies the optimism of that era. This movie has a sweetness that is sorely lacking in today's film. Films of similar likeness would include Bringing Up Baby, and maybe the Topper series of movies.It is the only movie veteran character actor Richard Haydn directed. I wish he would have directed more.
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s.knowles11 November 2003A lovely screwball comedy, with an excellent cast and a clever script as you would expect from Charles Brackett and Richard Breen. John Lund shows a deft comedy touch as the stuntman hired to impersonate the dead idiot heir but who falls in love with his supposed sister. Lund and Wanda Hendrix have some very good scenes together while Ilka Chase, Barry Fitzgerald and Monty Woolley give great support. Even Robert Stack gives a good performance. Only director Richard Haydn's small part as the lawyer is totally over the top (played under the name Richard Rancyd - enough said).
It is a shame that this is only available as a very poor quality video. Why do so many good films never get released on video or DVD when so much rubbish does? -
bobbyhollywood11 April 2011I said that to my Mother after seeing this movie at the theater, she said it was time to go home, I asked if we couldn't see the movie again. I got my answer with a gentle tug of my arm and we were on our way home.
John Lund, one of my favorite actors, and the whole cast of this film are really very good. I was inside that movie with Skyler and following his every step, laughing, oh my yes, I was laughing and giggling, it was nice to see the smile on my Mother's face when she would glance over at me as I was laughing.
One very enjoyable movie, if you can rent or buy it, do it, you will enjoy it! -
donaldgreybarnhouse18 December 2006Most people who have actually seen this movie seem to love it, and comment on its humor. Certainly it is a top drawer comedy, but I first saw it as a teenager and fell in love with Wanda Hendrix immediately. She is gorgeous, and has a speech pattern that borders on a little lisp, and it gives her a combination of innocence and appeal that is hard to beat. You easily learn to hate the bad guy who is out to get her, and the development of the romance is delightful. And, of course, any time Barry Fitzgerald is on camera, he steals the scene. Ilke Chase and Monte Wooley are marvelous in character parts. Robert Stack does a great job as the wolf you love to hate. When Wanda Hendrix is tracing letters with her finger on Art Lund's chest, you have to be a very unusual person not to feel your temperature rise a little. I agree with the reviewer who can't understand why this gem has not been published on DVD. I'd stand in line to get it.
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This movie has been a family favorite. However, for many years we have not been able to view it on TV or Cable. Why isn't it on VHS???
They sure don't make comedies like this anymore. My sister and I have grown up using phrases from the movie.