Dear Mr. Prohack

Cecil Parker is an upper officer of the Treasury, a natural fussbudget who views his remit as stopping government waste and sparing the overtaxed taxpayer. His salary is adequate, but little more, affording him two luxuries: his nitwit wife, Hermione Baddeley, whom he loves dearly, and his club, which he loves almost as much. Then he inherits a quarter of a million pounds, and discovers that it's enough money to be miserable on.

If the part was not written for Parker, they must have thought of him immediately when they bought the movie rights. It's the very model of his comic persona, fussy, yet endearing, set in his ways, yet very much a fish out of water. Other performers who are favorites of mine include Glynis Johns, Dirk Bogarde as his surly son, Sheila Sims as his arty daughter, and Ian Carmichael as a hat salesman. It's all in service of Parker's performance, offering a tour de force.

Cecil Parker (Mr. Prohack) gives a polished performance and comic portrayal of a stuffy post war civil servant who is involved with red tape & protocol while controlling the impecunious nation's purse strings through his job at the British Treasury during a time of acute post WW11 shortages, rationing & austerity.In this endeavour, he is ably supported by Mrs Prohack (Hermione Baddeley) with his son & daughter in tow.

For someone like me who was born in 1946, these early post war films have a certain resonance while I remember that the nation was on food rationing until 1955.So the references to privation,(harder for the working class family) for the middle class family, involved high taxation and no proper domestic help.In one scene Cecil Parker rolls up his sleeves & helps with the washing up, (dishwashers were far into the future).Seasoned viewers of British actors will spot little cameo performances by Michael Pertwee (Dr Who no:3) who had a comically babbling voice ("The Navy Lark") , Ian Carmichael, and later film producer Brian Forbes.The love interest is provided by Glynis Johns romanced by a young Dirk Bogarde.

What throws the characters into a "tizz" is to be informed by Mr Prohack that he has been left in the will of a colleague £250,000 (more like £2,500,000 in 2014 money adding 65 years inflation).This is like giving a drunkard the keys to a brewery and of course provides the humour as all the Prohack family decide to spend Dad's newly inherited wealth in a bizarre fashion.There is an unexpected superimposed dream sequence for Mr.Prohack who is in bed while "under the weather", which involves medieval knights and various surreal images.

I was confused what the moral of the film was or what message for the viewer the producer intended to convey but soon after Mr Prohack's ill advised investments go under, a colleague who invests on the stock market, informs him he has made another profit of £250,000.When he is on a private aeroplane heading to Paris with his lady friend, Mr Prohack speaks the most appalling French to the French pilot.I feel sure a senior British civil servant would have done better but it is all done for comic effect.The end of the screen play quotes an extract towards the end of Hamlet's Soliloquay: "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all", referring to the suitcase full of banknotes deposited on his civil servant's desk.I rated this film 6/10.

This had a good idea but the plotting was absolutely dreadful no real idea what message it was trying to get over

The other review being from an American,obviously doesn't grasp the nuances of the plot.When the film was made the country was in the grip of an austerity period far worse than the one we are in.Cecil Parker was a civil servant at the Treasury who kept a tight control on everyones spending.A strict currency limit being imposed on anyone who went abroad,for example Cecil Bernstein was refused permission by the Treasury to buy RKO from Howard Hughes.So the idea of a civil servant coming into such money however legally would have been considered quite outrageous.Alas the script writers clearly had the kernel of a good idea but weren't really able to develop it in a satisfactory manner.some of the plot seems derived from "Brewsters Millions".Cecil Parker does his best with the material.There is a very young Jon Pertwee and Denham Elliott and Dirk Bogarde on view.However the film fails to live up to its promise.