The Million Pound Note (1954)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ronald Neame

Writers:

Mark Twain (story)
Jill Craigie (writer)

Release Date:

18 June 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Great fun... you can bank on it!

Plot:

Two rich British men offer a penniless American a loan, without telling him that the amount is £1,000,000, and this in the form of a single banknote.

Plot Keywords:

American | Money | Rowboat | Based On Short Story | Tailor

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Henry Adams
Ronald Squire	...	Oliver Montpelier
Joyce Grenfell	...	Duchess of Cromarty
A.E. Matthews	...	Duke of Frognell
Maurice Denham	...	Mr. Reid
Reginald Beckwith	...	Rock
Brian Oulton	...	Lloyd
John Slater	...	Parsons
Wilbur Evans	...	American Ambassador
Hartley Power	...	Hastings
George Devine	...	Lloyd Hastings
Bryan Forbes	...	Todd
Gudrun Ure	...	Renie (as Ann Gudrun)
Hugh Wakefield	...	Duke of Cromarty
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Roderick Montpelier (as Wilfrid Hyde White)

Also Known As:

Man with a Million (USA)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Group Film Productions Limited

Trivia:

The £1,000,000 note at the time the film is set, 1903, would be worth approximately $100,000,000 ($100 millon) in 2002. Or £65,000,000 Sterling. (note to imdb. Source of calculation is www.eh.net)

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Henry Adams returns to his benefactors' home, he pulls the bell handle and the fabric of the stone building flexes outwards.

Quotes:

Mr. Reid: Now what about a cycling suit, Mr. Adams ? Cycling is all the rage nowadays. And then of course there is Ascot.
Henry Adams: I'm not gonna do any cycling and I'm not gonna do any Ascotting. Sailing is my hobby.
Mr. Reid: Ah ! The sport of kings. Very right and proper for a personage such as yourself.
Henry Adams: I thought racing was the sport of kings ?
Mr. Reid: [unperturbed] Then it ought to be sailing !
[to his assistant]
Mr. Reid: Nip in the waist a bit.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Trading Places (1983)

Soundtrack:

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo

really rather good

A rare foray into British films for Gregory Peck, and the journey seems to have done him good as this film shows him in one of his better performances (alongside Roman Holiday and To Kill a Mockingbird).

Henry Adams is given the million-pound note of the title and is challenged to keep it, intact, for a month. And that's the whole premise of the film - but along the way there is a chase along a windswept street, a dumb strongman, a rich girl, a gold mine, Joyce Grenfell, a bet, and a rather snooty tailor.

The film manages to poke fun both at the Americans and the British, as well as highlighting the class differences still prevalent in this country even today. Henry Adams' plight could be the one of any lottery winner in 2007, although this being movieland, all works out for the best in the end.

Interesting to compare with Mr Deeds Goes To Town, another film about a dotty philanthropist who comes into sudden wealth.