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"The Jackpot" is a story about Bill Lawrence, an ordinary man with a lovely wife, two growing kids, a regular job and a good group of friends. But this ordinary man thinks his life is too ordinary, too boring. Then one night he has an opportunity to answer a question on a radio quiz show. Once he gives the correct answer and begins to receive the prizes, his life is no longer boring or ordinary. Of course he soon wishes things were back to normal. Jimmy Stewart is such a pleasure to watch as he runs through a whole gamut of emotional upheavals. He goes from his routine life to the stress of trying to win the contest, to the euphoria of winning, to the turmoil when the prizes arrive, and then to the shocking discovery that he'll have to pay taxes on them. Barbara Hale is wonderful as his patient wife, who gets a little fed up with him as he laments his life decisions. James Gleason is also noteworthy as Bill's friend and adviser. While the story in itself isn't top notch, the acting more than makes up for it.

The Jackpot features James Stewart in another incarnation of his George Bailey, Mr. Average Man persona. Like Bailey, Jimmy Stewart is the average man with a wife and two kids. Only his Mr. Potter is his boss Fred Clark at the department store where he's a Vice President. But like Bailey he's feeling stuck in a rut in his small town.

That all changes when he gets a call from the Name the Mystery Husband quiz show and with a little help from James Gleason he gets the right answer. He wins $24,000.00+ in prizes, but no one tells him of the complications that go with it.

Barbara Hale steps nicely into Donna Reed's shoes and Natalie Wood and Tommy Rettig are the two children. Best in the supporting cast are Lyle Talbot, the department store's other vice president and one slobbering bootlicker and Alan Mowbray as an officious interior decorator.

Mowbray is playing a part and playing it well that another 20th Century Fox star, Clifton Webb would have eaten for breakfast. I wonder if the part in fact was offered to Webb. Maybe he turned it down because at that point he was a big name box office draw and the part of the obviously gay interior decorator might have been too close to home for those times.

The Jackpot is an enjoyable family comedy. Director Walter Lang got good performances out of his very talented cast.

Amusing little programmer that may be dated, but moves along nicely. Department store exec Jimmy Stewart has a suburban home, two cute kids, and a dutiful wife (Barbara Hale). He's a little bored but otherwise okay. That is, until he wins a yard full of dubious prizes (fruit trees, 1000 cans of soup, et. al.) from a radio show. That's sort of okay too, until he finds out he's got to pay $7000 in taxes on loot they really can't use. Now the happy home turns upside down and into a sales bazaar as Stewart tries to raise the tax money and get his life back to normal. However, the complications pile up almost as fast and furiously as the chuckles.

Clever script from the Ephrons (Henry & Phoebe), along with a number of nice touches from ace comedy director Walter Lang. Note how he has a card-playing guest humorously peek at the cards while others are distracted by the radio show-- that had to be an inspiration of the moment. Stewart, of course, brings his usual brand of amiable befuddlement to the comedy mix, and who better to play his department store boss than that 50's curmudgeon of big business, baldy Fred Clark, (I hope there's a special place in Hollywood heaven for unsung performers like him).

I remember the mystery-guest quiz shows that the movie portrays. They were popular and fascinating for an audience trying to unravel the riddle of the celebrity guest (eg. Jack Benny as the "Walking Man"). I don't know, but I'll bet that those shows started paying the taxes on prizes after this movie was released. This is a good example of the kind of family comedy that soon migrated to 50's sit-com (Ozzie & Harriet; Leave it to Beaver). Probably it would not have been produced 5 years later, quiz-show premise or not. Nonetheless, there's enough human interest and clever comedy set-ups to overcome the period limitations and keep you entertained.

Where did this movie come from and who has been hiding it for all these years? Was it you, Ruppert Murdoch? This was on Fox Movie Channel today and what a surprise it is! When you view a film which has been up until "the moment" unheard of, it's like viewing a New Jimmy Stewart starring vehicle.

THERE is also a distinction between a "Movie" and a "Film". Sure, the two terms are interchangeable and virtually synonymous; yet there seems to be a definite distinction in usage. To us regular old fun, adventure, action and strictly escapist entertainment type of Motion Pictures are "Movies"; whereas any production which is of a Grand Scale, represents an Accurate Historical Portrayal, is highly Cinematic in Style or is otherwise considered to be a "Major Motion Picture" is considered a "Film". (This includes most Biopics and Musical Adaptations from the Legitimate Broadway Stage.)

OUR fondest recollections of Mr. James Stewart's work is mainly (if not totally) made up of celluloid works that would have to be most certainly Film. Starting with a pair of Frank Capra's gems as in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (Columbia, 1939) and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Liberty Pictures/RKO Radio, 1946). First rate productions of Film Biographies were his strong suit, also; with examples aplenty. Jimmy starred as tragic Chicago White Sox Pitcher, Monty Stratton in THE STRATTON STORY (MGM, 1949), the title role in THE GLENN MILLER STORY (Universal, 1953) and as 'Lucky Lindy'(Himself), Charles Lindbergh in THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS (Leland-Wilder Productions/Warner Brothers, 1957).

FURTHERMORE, other typical roles for Mr. Stewart (other than the occasional Comedy or Farce) were usually very strong, heroic types; such as: Chicago Newspaper Man, P.J. McNeal in CALLING NORTHSIDE 777 (20th Century-Fox, 1948), THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND (Paramount Pictures Corporation. 1955) and as Tenderfoot 'Pilgrim' Attorney, Ransom Stoddard in John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (John Ford Productions/Paramount, 1962).

SMALL wonder then that a lot of moviegoers & film buffs tend to dismiss a Comedy/Farce such as THE JACKPOT (20th Century-Fox, 1950) as being a production that was below Jimmy's talents and stature as a true, Box Office stuffing, Red Blooded, All-American type and Movie Star to boot! JACKPOT is, after all, not really much of a story; being suggested by a story published in The New Yorker Magazine about the Radio Industry and some of the idiosyncrasies of the Game Shows & Giveaways of the period.

With it's simple and straight forward scenario, THE JACKPOT may well have been an old 2 Reel Comedy of the Late Silent or Early Talkie Eras. It could easily be built on starring a young Harold Lloyd, 'Baby-Faced' Harry Langdon or Stan Laurel (in his pre-Laurel & Hardy teaming). The story, as thin as it is, exists for our laughter and enjoyment.

OUR STORY……………………….....In the proverbial Nut Shell, regular old average working American, Bill Lawrence (Mr. Stewart) answers a Radio Quiz Show' Jackpot Question (Hence the title; get it, Schultz?) and wins $24,000.00+ as the prize; well, not exactly! The prize is worth that (retail?), but it comes in the form of Goods and Services, rather than in Cold Ca$h Dollar$, in the Currency of the U$A, it is made up of a Crazy Quilt of disconnected items such as a Quarter Ton of Beef, Hundreds of Cases of Canned Soups, a real Pony, a House Trailer and many items of Jewelry such as multiple wristwatches and a Diamond Ring.

OTHER prize items include a Home Remake by famous Interior Decorator, 'Leslie' (Alan Mowbry) and a Portrait Painting by equally famous Painter, Hilda Jones (Patricia Medina).

THE story unfolds with the Story of Mr. Bill Lawrence's win making Front Page News, especially in this small, Indiana Town. All of the complications and unintended consequences that follow make up the action on the screen. Plain and simple, straightforward occurrences that upset the heretofore happy lives of Bill & Amy Lawrence (Barbara Hale-Woo,woo,woo,woo! Della Street never looked so good!), their kids, Phyllis (a young Natalie Wood-Woo,woo,woo,woo, too!) and an even younger and shorter Tommy (Tommy Rettig, "LASS-IEEE!").

A fine supporting cast is present and includes James Gleason, Fred Clark, Lyle Talbot, Billy Nelson, Phillip Van Zandt, John Qualen, Robert Gist, Frances Budd, Dulcie Day, Fritz Feld, Ann Doran, Estelle Etterre, June Evans, Walter Baldwin and many more faces we know. (…. But the names?) THE JACKPOT is meant to let us sit back, let our hair down and enjoy the laughter; even if some of them are kinda obvious and we can see 'um a comin'.

JUST ENJOY!!

POODLE SCHNITZ!!

Beneath an innocuous story about a quiz show prize, there is a comic attack on a consumer society and the quest for more wealth.

Jimmy Stewart plays the man making around 7 grand a year (talk about inflation!) and hopes to win the.radio prize of 24 grand. Oddly his friends think he would never have to work a day in his life, though I'm not sure how far that 24 grand would have gone even in 1950. After all he's making just over 7 grand a year and has a few hundred in the bank so that award money would finance his and his family's life or less than 4 years!

Even worse, he doesn't even win the money but an absurd list of prizes. That's where the movie began to lose me. The entire radio sequence was ridiculously overdone. It's true old prize shows such as Queen for a Day did have a plethora of prizes, but they were relevant to the winner's needs, not just absurd awards like a pony or a maid or portrait artist, etc.

Despite its flaws this is one of the most interestingly plotted movies I know of. It goes all over the place and often om unexpected place.

The extended ratio sequence certainly diminishes the movie for me. But otherwise it was rather entertaining with a doze of originality.

What can one say about James Stewart, in my view the greatest actor in the history of the Hollywood cinema. I love Brando, but I can't imagine even Brando successfully handling the range of parts that Stewart played.

Barbara Hale, later of Perry Mason TV series, was a strong presence in the movie, though a very young Natalie Wood seemed unrecognizable.as the daughter. One would never have guessed she would shine as a beauty queen in adult roles. Tommy Rettig, who played the son, later got the part of the boy in the Lassie TV series.

Fred Clark, who later was the second best Harry. Morton in the Burns and Allen series seems to have been ubiquitous in films of this era, and always successfully so.

I wish I had paid more attention to the music score; but, oddly, I don't recall a single underscore cue in the entire film. I'll have to see the movie again to check the accuracy of that statement.

In sum, even apart from the interesting plotting of the story, and despite the longueurs of the radio sequence, any Jimmy Stewart is foolproof.

If this hadn't been a Jimmy Stewart film, then I probably would have enjoyed this film a lot more. After all, it's a pleasant little time-passer. However, for Stewart we have all come to expect so much more than just a simple script and a somewhat forgettable film. It isn't surprising that of all this films in the 1950s, this might be one of the most obscure ones and it's hardly ever shown on TV. They did release it on DVD some time back, but it's also apparently out of print and unavailable at Amazon. It's pretty obvious why this film never took off and is just about forgotten.

Jimmy plays an executive who works for a local department store. His life is pretty happy and ordinary. Then, out of the blue, he's contacted by a national radio contest with gobs of prizes. When he gets the right answer, he wins over $20,000 in prizes--though none of it is in cash. The cash would have been nice, as Stewart soon realizes he's not as lucky as he thought, as now he owes taxes on a lot of unnecessary goods AND his marriage and job are on the rocks--all thanks to the contest.

The acting is pretty good. I particularly liked James Gleason in support and Stewart is his usual affable self. However, not all the parts are written very well--in particular, Barbara Hale (who plays his wife) comes off as very petulant and nasty. This snappy personality didn't make sense, as she went from devoted wife to jealous ----- (I can't use the word--it won't pass IMDb standards).

Overall, the film certainly isn't bad and is worth a look. However, indifferent writing and a story that seems very forced make this a film you can skip or see as purely a time-passer.

Remember when James Stewart as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life says, "I wish for a million dollars. Hot dog!" Well, if you want to see what would happen to George if he got his wish, rent The Jackpot.

It's a very funny (and true) premise. He correctly answers a question on a television lottery program, thinking he's won a jackpot of cash. In fact, he actually wins tons of products, worth the dollar amount advertised. A refrigerator, a television set, a car, a year's worth of frozen beef, etc. At first it's exciting to have all the shiny new things delivered, but after a while, his wife Barbara Hale can't find room for them in the house. And what's the icing on the cake? Some of you may have already guessed: taxes. Every reward item is counted as part of his income, so he has to pay taxes on a much larger amount than he can afford!

You won't be watching this one for the good acting. Jimmy is exactly the same as he was in the beginning of It's a Wonderful Life. You'll be watching it for the irony of good luck and bad luck, and for the funny 1950s atmosphere. It's really a time capsule showing parties, patter in friendships, and life in the suburbs.

One of Jimmy Stewart's most overlooked films. This picture is pure 1950's. Stewart is an overworked family man, (Similar to his role in Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation, but The Jackpot is a much better picture.) who wins a radio game show. Prizes range from the useful to the absurd. Everything is fine until he finds out he's got to pay taxes on all of his loot. Probably as much pure fun as any Jimmy Stewart picture.

I have a question that goes beyond the one that's in this movie - Who is the Mystery Husband? (and by the way, I recognized his voice) - WHAT was THE James Stewart doing in a B movie? Did he owe Fox a film or what? That to me is the most intriguing question.

Stewart doesn't raise this film to A status, but having him in it certainly brings it up a notch. He plays husband and father Bill Lawrence - maybe George Bailey 20 years hence "It's A Wonderful Life" had it not been for Clarence - who's bored with the routine and, in middle age, realizing that the house, the wife, the kids, the job, - this is it. As he puts it, he's not going to the North Pole. Then he gets a call from the Federal Broadcasting System to make sure he's home that evening to get a call from a quiz show. If he can answer the question correctly, he'll get $24,000 in prizes.

Bill answers correctly, and then the trouble begins. Where to put the fully-dressed quarter ton of meat, the 7,000 soups, the three years of frozen foods, the old furniture since the house is being made over, the pony, etc. And who's going to pay the taxes on all that stuff. These aren't the only headaches. Bill's wife (Barbara Hale) is jealous of the dishy dame (Patricia Medina) hired to paint Bill's portrait, so his marriage is going down the tubes.

This is a cute movie that does have some amusing bits in it, plus good backup from James Gleason and Fred Clark. The best for me was Bill deciding they need to sell stuff to pay taxes, and trying to do it on the sly in the department store where he works, waylaying customers like a guy who drags you into a back alley. Stewart is wonderful, as if he could ever be anything but, and Barbara Hale is lovely. But give me a break. This could have been a sit-com episode. I can't imagine what gun Darryl Zanuck held to Jimmy's head to get him to do this movie. Zanuck must have had dirt on him that no one else knew.

An employee at a store answers a phone call which results in him winning prizes on a radio quiz program worth $24,000. However, when he realises he has to pay tax of $7,500 on the prizes, he tries to sell items to raise the money and his family's life is thrown into turmoil.

Based on a play, in turn based on a true story, this is an entertaining comedy which was well received on release but is now surprisingly little known. Stars James Stewart, excellent as usual, and Barbara Hale with a good cast in support.

Unfulfilled Indiana husband and father, an advertising stiff at the local department store, wins $24K worth of prizes on a radio quiz show; however, once the gifts begin arriving in quick succession, the man becomes even more frustrated than before. One of those depressing "middle class" Hollywood fables which hopes to teach audiences it's better to be a have-not than a have. The picture isn't even useful as a star-vehicle, with James Stewart shouting at everybody, also tripping up the stairs and falling down them (twice). Barbara Hale is snippy and defensive as Jimmy's spouse, Fred Clark is his usual uptight self as Stewart's boss, and Natalie Wood--going through an endearingly awkward stage--is one of Jimmy's two kids who is mostly shooed out of the room (she does have one cute scene at the breakfast table with Pop). The picture sets up a good premise, but the morality of the times guaranteed this family a happy ending only with their taxes paid and their pockets empty. Stuffy and conservative, the movie makes suburban life look like a death sentence. *1/2 from ****

Hadn't heard of this Stewart title before catching it during a recent run on the Fox movie channel. It's well worth a watch. It does a nice job of capturing the post WWII atmosphere in America as families turned their attention away from the war and the pre-war depression and forward to new economic prosperity and growth. It is in this atmosphere that an average family living a simple life in small town Indiana answers a radio contest question and wins a $24,000 prize, which today probably amounts to 10 times as much. The resulting humorous complications that arise both at home and at work for Stewart and his family after he becomes a prize winner are hilarious.

From the movie description, you would think this is the kind of plot line that the writers would give cursory treatment, but I was surprised at the quality of the writing. I should have known better since James Stewart is not likely to agree to take a lead role in a poorly written work. Stewart has a solid surrounding cast who also all deliver ably - Barbara Hale, Fred Clark, James Gleason, Bob Gist and others, including young Natalie Wood. This is a nice romp and worth viewing.

"The Jackpot" is a fairly good comedy with a fine cast that includes some top supporting actors of the day. James Stewart and Barbara Hale headline the film as Bill and Amy Lawrence. The comedy has a slight dark edge to it at times. The plot is mostly about efforts to get cash from some winnings to pay off the IRS. I think a better script with some more interplay among Bill's department store cohorts could have boosted the comedy. It's not among Stewart's better films.

Of course, it's a classic Jimmy Stewart role, and it did well at the box office. Fred Clark is very good - and much more likeable this time around, in his cantankerous growly persona as Andrew Woodruff. Alan Mowbray is always funny, and here he's a hoot as an interior decorator. James Gleason and Lyle Talbot always do well in supporting roles. Among the rest of the cast is a young Natalie Wood as Bill and Amy's daughter, Phyllis.

TV game shows apparently remain very popular well into the 21st century. They are a takeoff from the original shows that aired on radio. That's the plot for this one, with Bill winning $24,000 in goods. It's based loosely on a real jackpot winner and winnings of $24,000 in 1948.

It may seem strange to people well into the 21st century that so many goods could be bought for $24,000 in 1950. Well, in 2020 dollars that amount would buy $258,000 in goods. During the mid-20th century, quite a few films had plots that had problems with the federal income taxes and the IRS. This is one of those. It surprised me some to think that someone of Stewart's stature in the film didn't think about having to pay taxes on winnings that would be more than three times his annual earnings.

The Jackpot may not be as serious and have as deep of a message as "It's A Wonderful Life" and it may not be as suspenseful as "Vertigo", but The Jackpot excels as a fine example of classic comedy that doesn't involve the typical exploits of today's comedies. Jimmy Stewart is Bill Lawrence, a typical man, husband, and father who lives a typical life, in a typical neighborhood, in a typical town. Mr. Lawrence is in a rut. But that all changes when he answers a question right on a radio program, his wonderful "rut" of a life turns upside down as the prizes pour in. What results can only be described as comedic catastrophe! A must see movie for comedy, Jimmy Stewart, and movie lovers of all ages!

Lackluster comedy starring Jimmy Stewart as a man who wins $24,000 of merchandise in a radio contest but finds he can't afford to pay the taxes on the prize. So he tries to sell the stuff he won and gets nothing but grief. Stewart's likable as ever and his supporting cast is fine. But the script, written by Nora Ephron's parents, is weak with a lot of forced comedy situations and a kind of ugly subplot about the wife irrationally thinking her husband is having an affair. Someone like Preston Sturges probably could have made this work much better than it does. Worth a look for Stewart fans I guess.

Based on a play about a real life couple...this screwball comedy starring Jimmy Stewart finally had me laughing out loud in the end.

Jimmy Stewart plays Bill Lawrence, a husband, father of two, department store manager...hoping to get a promotion, and weekly canasta player. He is just a regular guy, until he wins a radio show's contest by guessing the "mystery husband" over the phone live on the radio. His prize $24,000...only it's not really cash, it is goods and services, and as his house starts to fill up with those goods and services he discovers that the IRS doesn't care that he doesn't have the money to pay the tax on those goods and services, forcing him to try to sell them. This is when the comedy really hits it's screwball stride.

Desperately trying to sell goods he is hawking watches and Venetian blinds while on the job and there is a veritable revolving door of potential buyers at his home...including piano players testing out the piano. To add to that, the whole town thinks he is having an affair with the lovely portrait painter and a fancy designer has not only sawed down his chair but turned his den into a funeral parlor. Insult to injury comes when he is arrested, thrown in jail and looses his job!

I love Jimmy Stewart and I am not sure I have ever seen him in a bad movie. This is a recommendation from me to fans of both Jimmy Stewart's and screwball comedies. Couple of fun highlights this film also stars Barbara Hale, James Gleason, Alan Mowbray and Fred Clark...but keep your eyes peeled for a young Natalie Wood playing Jimmy's phone living teenage daughter Phyllis.

The fact that James Stewart was billed as starring in this film, made me decide to have a peek at it on YouTube. I found the film entertaining. It is a story about wanting more from life and when you get it, you want your old hum drum life back. It is not hilariously funny or a movie that will be remembered for years to come - yet it is worth a viewing. Robert - South Africa.

When you are in the actual time of a movie: when it is made, you cannot see what you can later perceive as important historical sweeps. I imagine that is true of everything, But movies — most of them — are made for a very specific purpose. They are designed to make money by tapping some part of our psyche to tickle money our of our pockets.

Films are made for a specific era. That was absolutely true when this was made. No one imagined that it would have any life at all after spending a couple weeks in theaters. Jimmy Stewart, especially, could not have been aware what was in store. We know that what was coming within the decade was two of the most powerful and important films ever made: "Rear Window" and the much more elaborate "Vertigo." These are deep films that pulled a great many tricks, and one of the tricks was using Stewart.

He was selected because the audiences of that time would have known him from films like this one. Sure, he did some war and cowboy movies, but the public knew him and registered him against just exactly this sort of thing. Lovable, somewhat dim, earnest. A family man with a family that — as much through TeeVee — would leave fiction and become a sort of idealistic touchstone for a world. This has been termed an everyman, but it is more than that, much more in my opinion.

Film was inventing a pattern some called noir, where the viewers' needs entered the world of the characters and grabbed some hapless guy in a barrage of coincidence. Undetected at the time because of a lack of characteristic visual style was a parallel, the complement. The noir guy was tough, treated girls roughly and was able to master some important element of the situation. The dual was, well... Stewart's template: family man, and so on, but befalling the same sort of viewer-directed caprice.

What we have here is what I consider the peak of that. The peak would have to be a film so insignificant that it does not register on any list.

If you do not know it, he has a family. Two cute kids (including Natalie Wood). Barbara Hale as wife. She would later become Perry Mason's love interest. He has what would then be seen as a middle class job. A bomb lands on him not in the form of a disaster, but in the form of hundreds of prizes from a contest, dropped on him in a crude folding technique: the mystery husband contest over the radio. Radio at the time would have worked as a surrogate for the film within. Hilarity ensues.

We needed this and all the ones like it he did, for us to have "Rear Window" and "vertigo" which in a real sense fold these in.

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