Three on a Spree

Difficult to know what is the biggest contributor to the sheer lameness of this remake.Maybe the story had just outlasted its times.It could be the leads.Jack Watling shows he cannot handle comedy.Poor Carole Lesley was no actress but she couldn't cope with the end of her career and committed suicide.There are no less than six writers credited,which is always a bad sign..

Jack Watling has drudged for half a decade to build up enough money to marry Carole Lesley. He's finally saved enough, when he is asked to see some solicitors. His uncle has died and has left him seven million pounds, if he can manage to spend one million before his thirtieth birthday in three months. He accepts the matter blithely, but finds it more difficult to get behind than he had to get get ahead.... and he's losing everyone in the effort.

It's another version of George Barr McCutcheon's Brewster'S MILLIONS, with the script mostly lifted from the 1945 version, and varied by English accents. Watling is good as the increasingly frantic Mike Brewster, The principal difference seems to be the stage show he stages to lose money; when he forces an opening a month early, everything goes wrong, and the audience thinks it's deliberate, resulting in a hit. I think the 1945 version remains the best screen version of the often-remade show; this one works the farcical side of it too heavily. Still, it's nice to see the old-timers, including Renee Houston, John Slater, and Ronald Adam, as well as the harem he acquires accidentally.

McCutcheon published the original novel under a pseudonym after a friend complained that anything he wrote turned into a best-seller based on his success with GRAUSTARK and its sequels. There's no record of what his friend said when this one turned into a best-seller, a stage success, and seven (and counting) screen versions.

It's an unusual slant on the subject of money. In this case our hero has got to get rid $1 million by spending it within a certain time if he hopes to inherit millions more. What does he do? He helps his friends with loans, invests in projects and more, bets on races, and so on. Trouble is he actually becomes successful, gains returns on investments, wins bets, etc., so he's not that far ahead! Poor fellow. It's fun though.