Let's Make a Million

"Let's Make a Million" is a Paramount comedy with a mostly lesser-known cast except for Edward Everett Horton. He has the lead role, as he did in a number of early sound films after a start in silent pictures. But mostly he would be recognized by movie buffs from his supporting roles in many comedies with big name stars of the 1930s-1950s. Horton was a wonderful actor who performed on the silver screen and then TV right up until his death in 1970 at age 84. In this film, he plays Harrison Gentry, in his home town of Gentry, Oklahoma, where many of the stores are owned and operated by people of that family name. He is well liked and the town folk seem to take his lead in everything. When he gets swindled by a couple of guys who get him to invest in an oil well, the town folk who had invested as well blame him when the conmen take a powder. So, he's disowned, kicked out of his veterans group, and no longer liked. But when a friend helps him finish a well that hits oil and paydirt, he's once again a hero and everyone's friend.

There's a little matter of morals mixed in with this comedy. Anyway, things work out with the amusing comedy. It doesn't have clever or funny dialog, nor slapstick or antics. It's mostly a comedy of situations with neighbors and friends.

One notable thing about this film - at least to bona fide movie buffs from the early days, is the appearance of The Pixilated Sisters. Harrison's two aunts, Martha and Lucy, are played by Margaret Seddon and Margaret McWade. They were a vaudeville team and act for years and played on Broadway. They are best remembered for their portrayals as the pixilated Faulkner sisters, Jane and Amy, in the 1936 smash hit, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," that starred Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.

This is a light comedy that fans of E.E. .Horton, especially, should enjoy.

I watched this film because I love Edward Everett Horton...and knew he'd once again be very likable playing lead in this B-movie...which he was. And, while I did enjoy this movie, I think the addition of the so-called 'Pixilated Sisters' from "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" were not only unnecessary i the movie but darned unpleasant and nasty. Without them, the film could have been better.

The story is set around the time of the distribution of bonus checks promised to WWI vets. This check will come in very handy, as the Depression was on and a lot of folks had bills to pay and mouths to feed. In the case of Harrison (Horton), he planned on using this to FINALLY get married after dating his girlfriend for five years (this was not unusual during the Depression). But his selfish aunts insist he spend the money for a memorial in a park they bought years ago...even though he already is paying his expenses and cannot get married if he does this. When he tells them no, the aunt's pretend to have heart palpitations and manipulate him into feeling guilty. I TRULY hated this portions and wanted to see the aunts run over by a steamroller. In "Mr. Deeds" they were funny...here they are just selfish.

Despite telling the aunts no, Harrison also does NOT use the money to get married. Instead, he gets suckered into investing in some phony oil stock...and when he invests, so do most of his acquaintances. When the stock turns out to be worthless, suddenly he's to blame and all his so-called friends turn their collective backs on him. But Harrison isn't defeated....as he has a plan. Tune in to see the plan and its results.

"Let's Make a Million" works because of Horton...period. The writing is generally decent (with the exceptions of the aunts) but Horton really brings it across because you like him and want him to be a winner. A nice little film worth seeing.

Congress votes veterans of the Great War $1,100 each. Edward Everett Horton intends to use it to get married to longtime fiancee Charlotte Wynter. However, oil swindlers come to town and explain they only buy supplies from their shareholders. Horton, who anticipates selling pipes, motors and other equipment to them, puts in his bonus, and so does everyone else in town. Then comes the dawn, and they all blame Horton save Miss Wynter and J. M. Kerrigan. Still, any town that has Irving Bacon as a mail carrier can't be too bad.

Paramount rushed this into production hoping to tie it to actual events, but by the time it came out, it was old hat. Nonetheless, its a funny little comedy, thanks largely to Horton's mugging. Kerrigan shows himself to be very funny in a scene where he's taking the hair of the dog that bit him, and getting Horton drunk in the process.

Irish-born Kerrigan had first essayed the movies as an actor and director in 1916, but it didn't take. Sounds was a different matter, and 1929 saw him in the first of more than a hundred talkies through 1956. He died in 1964, aged 79.