Sein größter Bluff

Arriving home, with a long day of work behind me, and another ahead, I was in the mood for something friendly and undemanding. Ronald Neame's 'The Million Pound Note (1953)' was exactly what the doctor ordered. This lightweight British comedy is, for one, wholly and absolutely pleasant: notice how there is not a single villain in the entire film, every character likable in their own, distinctively-British way. The old family friend, whom we are certain is a grumbling and untrustworthy shyster, turns out to be an honest entrepreneur. The man who arranges to deprive Henry Adams (Gregory Peck) of his wealth is merely a doddering old eccentric who just wants to show some patriotism for a personal lark. This is the sort of film whose conclusion is never in any doubt: Peck will get the girl, achieve happiness, and learn to live without the extravagance to which he thought he would become accustomed. Frankly, I can't imagine the film ending any other way.

When penniless American stowaway Henry Adams (Peck, probably on his way to Italy to film 'Roman Holiday (1953)') requests a small loan from the US embassy in London, he is flatly denied by an indifferent official. However, a pair of childish millionaires (Ronald Squire and Wilfrid Hyde-White) have an even greater plan for him. They loan Henry a rare million pound note, which he is forbidden to cash in, for just a one month engagement. Pretty soon, every store and hotel owner in the city is tripping over themselves to offer him free services, irrationally smitten with the honour of serving a wealthy American, however unorthodox his dress manner may be. Of course, the arrival of "millionaire" Henry Adams doesn't go unnoticed in the high societies of London, and Portia Landsdowne (Jane Griffiths) is soon love-struck with the humble American, though his apparent wealth hinders rather than aids their love affair. Will the couple be together by the film's end? You don't need me to tell you.

Though I had expected 'The Million Pound Note' to be a slightly wooden comedy, it was great to find the film regularly inciting a hearty chuckle. Two moments stand out above all the others. Firstly, Gregory Peck opening the brothers' envelope for the first time to pay for a hearty meal, and dazedly apologising for not having anything smaller (the store-owners accept Henry as an "eccentric millionaire" and offer the meal for free). Secondly, the charity auction event in which the famous American millionaire carefully counts the coins in his hand to bid £82 12s, before inadvertently bidding £5000 for a rather commonplace vase. As lightweight as it may be, the film also aims a few modest jabs at the superficiality and hypocrisy of British society, most of the characters welcoming Henry Adams only when under the impression that he is absurdly wealthy; there's a harsh but all-too-true irony in the fact that Henry can only secure a cash loan once the American embassy believes that he doesn't need it.

The Million Pound Note finds its way into the hands of a penniless American sailor who hasn't a pence to his name as he arrives in the United Kingdom at the turn of the last century. Gregory Peck who plays the sailor by chance runs into two elderly English brothers, Ronald Squires and Wilfrid Hyde-White, both filthy rich and are having an academic discussion around money.

They give Peck a million pound note from the Bank of England and the idea is to present himself as an eccentric American millionaire and for one month live off the reputation of that note. Peck's not to pay one shilling or break the note in any way. He's to live strictly on credit for that month, live I might add in a posh London hotel, typically posh for the 1900 or so.

Before I watched The Million Pound Note tonight I saw a variation on the same theme in Pretty Woman. Julia Roberts goes to a chic Rodeo Drive store in Beverly Hills and the first time arriving in her hooker working clothes, she's shown the door, but quick. But as Richard Gere said to her, they don't respect people, but credit cards yes, the higher the spending limit, the better.

The Million Pound Note was Gregory Peck's first venture into comedy and if you're looking for a lot of gags and belly laughs, skip this film. What you will find is a nice piece of whimsical humor where Peck's essential decency is kind of turned on itself for laughs. He's perfectly willing to be an guinea pig as the two old gents will give him enough money to get back to America.

But in this as in so many films, Peck doesn't count on falling in love with young aristocrat Jane Griffiths. She doesn't mind him being penniless or so she tells him, but snooty aunt Joyce Grenfell sure does when word comes out Peck's a fake.

The Million Pound Note is a good film with Peck in a perfectly suited character for himself. And it proves the old adage that millionaires are eccentric and paupers are just crazy.

As others have noted this is a one-joke comedy with the joke scarcely strong enough to carry the 90 mins. The movie is at its worst w hen it strains too hard to be funny with much pulling of flabbergasted faces and one ludicrous scene when the `note', obviously on a string, blows away and Peck dementedly chases it through the busy streets of Victorian London.

Gregory as the American Everyman excused from the English Class System looks and sounds fine if a little smug in a few scenes where possession of the eponymous note gives him the upper hand.

The big cast of British character actors including always enjoyable Joyce Grenfell as a dotty duchess in a slight variation on her usual jolly-hockey sticks character makes this fable on capitalism just about worth a look. Special mention also to A.E. Mathews striking just the right note as an antediluvian peer.

I found curious the billing of Ronald Squire and Wilfred Hyde-White, playing the brothers behind the scheme. They have exactly equal time at the beginning and end of the story but Squire is listed second with Hyde-White fifteenth! I'm sure Wilfred of My Fair Lady fame is the one remembered today.

Please note alternative title `Man with a Million'

Two elderly brothers, wealthy English gentlemen, establish a wager. They entrust a million-pound banknote to a penniless American, to see if he can live for a month purely on the good will which the note will engender, without ever having to cash it.

Gregory Peck plays Henry Adams, the innocent American, in this stodgy romantic comedy, based on a Mark Twain story. His love interest Portia Lansdowne is played by Jane Griffiths. The film is really just one gag, strung out for 90 minutes - a pauper has no friends, whereas a millionaire is surrounded by sycophancy and limitless credit. Markets deal in confidence, rather than cash.

The film is unarguably well-made. The performances are sharp, the incidental music comments neatly on the action and the 'look' is sumptuous. And yet there is something flat about Ronald Neame's direction, and the laughs are rather thin on the ground.

Verdict - Ostensibly a good idea, but not enough to support a full-length film.

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.