The Millionaire

The gentle humor of this film is balanced by a certain amount of social conscience, making it even as a dated story something moderately charming. Set in California during the Great Depression, it is pure fantasy of the kind much needed in movie-houses during those dark days. Although it is now rare in our decadent corporate epoch to find a happy and generous -- not to say intelligent -- millionaire free of the desire to line his own pockets at the expense of his employees, the character as played by George Arliss transcends mere capitalism and inspires us to higher purposes.

Cameos by James Cagney and Wallace Beery provide some historical flavor for film buffs, as do some truly grand vintage automobiles going in and out of the service stations central to the story. Though that story remains thin and improbable, it is fast-paced and directed with élan. My own appreciation was enhanced by noting at the outset the name of Booth Tarkington as one of the writers. He was without a doubt one of the finest popular novelists of the early twentieth century, now largely forgotten. The playful tone he employed in the "Penrod" stories is much evident here.

A very fine production for 1931.

Automobile tycoon James Alden (George Arliss) is forced into retirement due to health concerns. He is utterly bored. After talking to insurance salesman Schofield (James Cagney), he answers a newspaper ad to buy half a gas station under the fake name Charles Miller. He and his new partner Bill Merrick have been suckered by Peterson who moved his business next to the new highway. The duo decides to move across the street to compete directly. Meanwhile, Bill falls for Alden's daughter without realizing her father is his partner.

Arliss is great. There are social class differences that are harder to understand. Non-physical comedy is often harder to translate across time. The stakes are pretty low since Alden will always be rich and he will always approve of Bill for his daughter. Early James Cagney has a minor role. It has its fun but it doesn't strike me as hilarious in the modern sense.

James Cagney is forever in the minds of movie buffs as the hyper-acting gangster hitching up his pants before he fires guns-a-blazing. The New York City-native played a variety of characters throughout his long career in addition to his many roles as a criminal. One account describes how director William Wellman and the Warner Brothers studio selected the actor to be in "The Public Enemy" when May 1931's "The Millionaire" was being filmed on the studio lot in late 1930. Cagney's role as a life insurance salesman is brief in the movie, but it is pivotal to the plot's development.

George Arliss plays wealthy car maker James Alden, and has just retired. He's completely bored with new his sedentary life-style when he's approached by Schofield (Cagney) to give Alden a sales pitch on a life insurance policy. Once he realizes it's futile for an elderly man to buy such a policy, Schofield tells him if he were retired he would start a new business just to liven those retirement years up. That spurs Alden to go partners with Bill Merrick (David Manners) to buy a gas station, only to realize he's been swindle by the seller. The garage owner knows a highway is being planned a mile up the road where he aims to place his new gas station while Alden is stuck with a white elephant.

What makes "The Millionaire" so noteworthy, besides being a light-hearted movie showcasing veteran stage and film Academy Award Best Actor winner George Arliss, is how Cagney and he play off one another in that short scene. Cagney, in his budding film career, was limited to small roles in several of his movie appearances. He didn't advance into larger ones because studios felt his quick-talking delivery was unsuitable for the emerging audio technology. For the first couple of years of sound dialogue, the standard practice was to have the actors speak in slow, deliberate voices, with pauses between the actors' lines so viewers could digest what was being said. With Cagney, his lightning-fast delivery was completely opposite. Arliss, who was given the power to select the actor for that brief, albeit crucial scene, chose Cagney among those young actors whom Warner Brothers offered. Arliss loved Cagney's "natural behavior and innate cockiness," he said, just the perfect characteristics for the role.

As reviewer Mick LaSalle noted, the passing of the torch between generations of actors was occurring during that one brief scene. "In The Millionaire, the past and future meet at a moment of ideal stasis, just before the past has started to end and the future about to start. Two actors, two styles, and two eras are there before our eyes- in a union both incongruous and yet surprisingly harmonious."

If you see "The Millionaire" come on TV, check it out. Record it if you can't watch it 'live'. This is a wonderful and funny movie. In brief, the owner of an automobile manufacturing company - apparently patterned on Henry Ford - is told by his doctor that he must retire or the stress may kill him. He turns over his company to underlings and soon we see him out west in California, sitting in a chair at a lawn party, blanket over his legs, and a young woman asks him if he wants a piece of buttered toast. Telling her he's not allowed - his 'sulfurated wafer' is waiting for him - he tells her he can only have toast on his birthday next April. "You'll call again in the Spring..." he suggests.

There is a wonderful appearance by a very young Jimmy Cagney as an insurance salesman who refuses to sell him life insurance after learning that he is retired. Cagney tells him that once men retire to the sidelines they just fall apart. He suggests that the older man buy a business and run it 'as a toy' to give himself something to do.

The old guy does just that - he and a younger man buy a service station but it turns out they've been swindled; they weren't told by the seller that the road where it's located is about to be bypassed, and with it, almost all of the customer traffic. The old guy sets about evening up the score.

You can't help but like the main character, and his dry wit is such a difference from the punch-you-in-the-stomach "humor" of today's comedy, much of which depends on precocious kids and sexual innuendo and poddy-mouth comments. No sir, this old film has some genuine humor, if you are mature and intelligent enough to appreciate it.

I snagged this film and burned it to a DVD, and am glad I did. It's a great old movie - if you can see it, I promise you'll enjoy it.

George Arliss does it again! I recently saw "The Working Man (1933)" and loved it because the audience is let in on a deception that few of the cast know about. This is another film in the same vein. It makes for some very funny situations. The funniest scene happens when Arliss' wife, Florence Arliss (his real-life wife too), also comes around for some gas, but you have to see the film for that. By the way, the remake "That Way with Women (1947)" is pretty much a turkey; Arliss makes all the difference.

The supporting cast includes James Cagney (a standout) in his fourth film as an insurance agent convincing Arliss to get some work because retired men are poor life insurance risks. Also good is Noah Beery as the owner of the gas station.