The Big Money

In the 1950s Rank,along with other film producers,were trying to find ways to attract audiences back to the cinema.Having fallen out with Fox over Cinemascope,Rank turned to the short lived Vistavision,to add to Technicolour to attract customers.The fact that this could not disguise the poverty of the script didn't escape them and the film was shelved for 2 years.The best scenes are those at the beginning featuring Carmichael,Harrison and Hayter.After that the film is on a downward spiral.Nearly every actor with a major part is miscast.Carmichael is clearly unsuited to the part.For some reason his hair is made up with a teddyboys quiff.The part would more suit someone like Brian Rix.Diana Dors would certainly have made more of the part than Belinda Lee.Alas Robert Helpmann is just awful as the chief of the gang and would have been better played by Sid James.The climax in the hotel is about as unfunny as you can get.No wonder Carmichael didn't want to discuss it.At a time when he was a rising star of cinema this film could have put him back years.

Out of Pinewood Studios, The Big Money is directed by John Paddy Carstairs and written by John Baines. It stats Ian Carmichael, Belinda Lee, Robert Helpmann, James Hayter, Kathleen, Harrison and George Coulouris. Music is by Van Phillips and cinematography by Jack Cox. It is a VistaVision/Technicolor production.

When bumbling thief Willie Frith (Carmichael) steals a suitcase from a clergyman, he gets far more than he bargained for. Disowned by star and creators, and left on the shelf for years by the studio, it's safe to say that The Big Money at best is an awkward comedy. It's not bad exactly, in fact there's enough comedy here for those familiar with - and entertained by - British comedy slapstick pics of years gone by. The problem is a poor script that leaves a fine cast wasted.

The premise is a good one, eldest son from a family of crooks is incompetent and desperately wants to not only make the family proud, but also to make it big himself. The latter of which he sees as a way of attracting the opposite sex, notably the blonde siren behind the bar of The Red Dragon. Once he secures what he thinks is his life changing steal, he is thrust into mishap after mishap, all while some unsavoury types get on his trail. What transpires is a gently amusing comedy, but in truth that's not enough to make this a must - seek - out pic for those wishing to blow the blues away. Nice to see Royal Ascot feature though, that is if you like horse racing mind... 5/10

Ian Carmichael stars as Willie Frith, hapless eldest son of a family of crooks, who finally gets lucky snaffling a suitcase of pound notes, only to find they're forged, with the same number on each. Then his problems begin.

There is no doubt that Carmichael was embarrassed about his participation in this film: in his autobiography he went as far to record that he wished that Rank had destroyed all the prints. He's certainly acutely miscast. Though he specialised in portraying educated, bumbling and unworldly young men, Willie is mainly just gormless, an image compounded by the decision to give him a 'Teddy Boy' hairstyle, which only makes him look ridiculous. Then there's the scene in the swish nightclub, where he makes an exhibition of himself with his pockets loaded with coins, and unseemly behaviour after swigging too much liquid in a doomed effort to get rid of some of the notes. This is firmly in Norman Wisdom territory, and the star no doubt found it all a bit beneath him.

The glamorous Belinda Lee is perhaps a bit too refined as the barmaid in a role apparently turned down by Diana Dors, then trying to establish herself as a serious actress, but it's doubtful that many male viewers had any complaints. She gives a good performance despite the uneven script that portrays her character as sympathetic in one scene, and then a bit of an opportunist in the next. It seems a pity that Bryan Forbes' attempts to improve the writing were dismissed out of hand. I thought Robert Helpmann was a piece of inspired and original casting as the gang leader.

The mistake with Carmichael apart, this is not quite the disaster that some originally claimed and has some amusing moments throughout. In many ways it's a typical British comedy of its time.

Norman Wisdom. His place is taken by Ian Carmichael. I can partly see why he might have been cast - the character here is, although a thief, a hapless and rather naive one - a frequent Ian Carmichael character who struggled to get the girl. But after a promising start, the hokum into which the film descends at the end is much more Normam Wisdom. He always played a hapless clumsy character who often pursued - and ended receiving the attention and love of an impossibly beautiful dream girl (here played by Belinda Lee.

The film would been better with Norman Wisdom providing not just haplessness but also his renowned comedy skills which always uplifted hokum.

Robert Helpman is rather good as the gang leader/fake clergyman Apart from this the colour is excellent (Technicolor) and it does provide a glimpse of 1956 hotel extreme luxury - at least the room decor and bathroom, as well as a vision of an up-market night club. An excellent cast of familiar character actors many of whom had starred in other films, it at least held the interest throughout and was agreeable to watch.

Enough has been said by previous reviewers about this film, but all I have to add is that this is one of the earliest film appearances I have seen of the lovely Jill Ireland, and she was one of a few actresses who were extremely pretty in their younger days who became more beautiful the older they got. It was so sad that she passed away so young at 54.