If I Had a Million (1932)

Directors:

James Cruze
H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers:

Robert Hardy Andrews (story)
Claude Binyon (writer) ...

Release Date:

2 December 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A dying tycoon gives million-dollar windfalls to eight people picked from the city directory.

Plot Keywords:

Tycoon | Relative | Money | Forger | Prostitute

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Steve Gallagher
Charles Laughton	...	Phineas V. Lambert
George Raft	...	Eddie Jackson
Jack Oakie	...	Private Mulligan
Richard Bennett	...	John Glidden
Charles Ruggles	...	Henry Peabody (as Charlie Ruggles)
Alison Skipworth	...	Emily La Rue
W.C. Fields	...	Rollo La Rue
Mary Boland	...	Mrs. Peabody
Roscoe Karns	...	Private O'Brien
May Robson	...	Mrs. Mary Walker
Wynne Gibson	...	Violet Smith
Gene Raymond	...	John Wallace
Frances Dee	...	Mary Wallace
Lucien Littlefield	...	Zeb - Hamburger Stand Owner

Runtime:

88 min | USA:83 min (USA) (DVD release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1415-R, 31 August 1935 for re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Three sequences intended for the movie were not in the final print: "The Pheeneys" with Cary Grant and Miriam Hopkins, "The Man Who Drops Dead" by Oliver H.P. Garrett, directed by Thornton Freeland and Clive Brook, and "The Randall Marshalls" with Sylvia Sidney, Carole Lombard and Fredric March, and directed by Lothar Mendes. It is not known if the first 2 segments were filmed and dropped or simply not filmed. The last sequence was partially filmed, but dropped because March would not participate in retakes without salary.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Discovering he's about to die, millionaire Glidden decides to leave his money to names he's randomly selected from the phone book. But when first name he chooses turns out to be John D. Rockefeller, he flips a few pages further into directory and selects someone named Peabody - a name that would actually have appeared in the book before Rockefeller.

Quotes:

Rollo La Rue: Road hogs. A constant menace to society. They should be wiped out, Emily. Do you hear, wiped out!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Shadows of Suspense (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

Two Leers

The thirties had more experiments in exploring genres than any other time. One of those was the episode genre. It has become only a curiosity in later years because a great many films (and most comedies) are just a series of episodes loosely connected.

In this case, the connection is a millionaire who gives money to strangers. The idea was repeated in "Easy Money," to better overall effect. And it got the full dramatic treatment in the long running TeeVee show of the fifties named "The Millionaire."

I can recommend this for only two reasons. The first is a comic episode starring W C Fields and car crashes. I think his humor is pretty intelligent because it is so vocal. Oh, he does cinematic things, but it is all wrapped around vocal nuance. Fields and his "wife" here were doing another movie together and hopped over here it seems.

The second reason to watch this is Mankiewicz. If you are interested in movies, you must be interested in how they became to be what they are. And that means following the great writers: Sturgis, the Mankiewicz brothers, and others.

He seems to have had a hand in a few of these episodes, but the one that is most clearly his is one in which a floozie, Violet Smith, gets her million. It is very short with three tiny acts. She gets the money and has ordinary reactions. She is approached by an oafish sailor for sex. He has one of the most disturbing faces I recall this short of Italian movies. She cozies to him by instinct, so warm and natural that it seems a better act than the actress we have seem so far. Then she realizes she doesn't have to have sex with this guy to survive. It is a simple turn, but done well. And she isn't even credited!

The final act is the piece worth watching, though. terrific writing. It is simple. She checks into a fine hotel and gets the finest room. The scene is all about the bed, getting into bed alone, with fine, clean sheets on her. The whole point is that she is alone, with no sexual attentions. At peace.

The scene consists of her reveling in her privacy. She takes most of her clothes off so she can feel the sheets. The whole scene takes no more than two minutes. She turns off the light and pulls the sheets over her. Wait! Something is wrong. Light on, sheets off. She realizes she doesn't have to wear her stockings to bed. Now this is great writing folks. She takes them off so can be "off duty" and enjoy the sheets.

Now the kicker. All this time we have been invading her space, watching. Leering.

Mankiewicz surely understood women in a deep way. I wish we had someone like him today. Garcia perhaps?

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.