Le millionnaire

It's a shame that George Arliss was already an old man by the time the talking picture era arrived. Had he been younger, he would have been an even bigger star as he was simply a terrific actor--the best of his era. He's so good that every film he's in has a lot of charm simply because of his presence. Because I have loved so many of his pictures, that's why I made sure to watch "The Millionaire" when it came on TCM.

The story is about James Alden, a rich man who owns a prosperous car manufacturing company. One day his doctor tells him he's got to quit work and retire to a quiet life...or his days are numbered. So naturally he retires...and soon is bored to death! When he meets a fast-talking insurance salesman (James Cagney), he realizes that it's better to die happy...and that means going back to work. However, his wife (played by Arliss' real life wife) isn't about to stand for him go to work...so he decides to do it on the sly.

Alden decides to buy himself something small...a job he can own and work at his own pace. He buys a half interest in a gas station and is shocked to learn that he's been cheated--as the man selling it knew that a new road was going in and it would bypass the station! He and his new partner are angry...and both vow to give that jerk a run for him money, as the nasty guy (Noah Beery) has used the money from the sale to open a new station on the new road.

In the meantime, Alden likes his new partner, Bill...but he doesn't reveal that he's Alden. Instead, he pretends that Alden gave him money for the station and Bill that Alden is a real jerk! This is a problem...as in the meantime Bill's fallen in love with Alden's daughter. Alden is happy, as her old boyfriend is a real putz! But instead of giving them his blessing, he decides to have a little joke! And, this leads to a very delightful finale.

Overall, this is yet another great Arliss film...and much of it is clearly due to Arliss. He was simply marvelous in the film and with most other actors it simply couldn't have been this good...and it is amazingly good and well worth your time. A cute and enjoyable little comedy.

If you see "The Millionaire" come on TV, check it out. Record it if you can't watch it 'live'. This is a wonderful and funny movie. In brief, the owner of an automobile manufacturing company - apparently patterned on Henry Ford - is told by his doctor that he must retire or the stress may kill him. He turns over his company to underlings and soon we see him out west in California, sitting in a chair at a lawn party, blanket over his legs, and a young woman asks him if he wants a piece of buttered toast. Telling her he's not allowed - his 'sulfurated wafer' is waiting for him - he tells her he can only have toast on his birthday next April. "You'll call again in the Spring..." he suggests.

There is a wonderful appearance by a very young Jimmy Cagney as an insurance salesman who refuses to sell him life insurance after learning that he is retired. Cagney tells him that once men retire to the sidelines they just fall apart. He suggests that the older man buy a business and run it 'as a toy' to give himself something to do.

The old guy does just that - he and a younger man buy a service station but it turns out they've been swindled; they weren't told by the seller that the road where it's located is about to be bypassed, and with it, almost all of the customer traffic. The old guy sets about evening up the score.

You can't help but like the main character, and his dry wit is such a difference from the punch-you-in-the-stomach "humor" of today's comedy, much of which depends on precocious kids and sexual innuendo and poddy-mouth comments. No sir, this old film has some genuine humor, if you are mature and intelligent enough to appreciate it.

I snagged this film and burned it to a DVD, and am glad I did. It's a great old movie - if you can see it, I promise you'll enjoy it.

James Cagney is forever in the minds of movie buffs as the hyper-acting gangster hitching up his pants before he fires guns-a-blazing. The New York City-native played a variety of characters throughout his long career in addition to his many roles as a criminal. One account describes how director William Wellman and the Warner Brothers studio selected the actor to be in "The Public Enemy" when May 1931's "The Millionaire" was being filmed on the studio lot in late 1930. Cagney's role as a life insurance salesman is brief in the movie, but it is pivotal to the plot's development.

George Arliss plays wealthy car maker James Alden, and has just retired. He's completely bored with new his sedentary life-style when he's approached by Schofield (Cagney) to give Alden a sales pitch on a life insurance policy. Once he realizes it's futile for an elderly man to buy such a policy, Schofield tells him if he were retired he would start a new business just to liven those retirement years up. That spurs Alden to go partners with Bill Merrick (David Manners) to buy a gas station, only to realize he's been swindle by the seller. The garage owner knows a highway is being planned a mile up the road where he aims to place his new gas station while Alden is stuck with a white elephant.

What makes "The Millionaire" so noteworthy, besides being a light-hearted movie showcasing veteran stage and film Academy Award Best Actor winner George Arliss, is how Cagney and he play off one another in that short scene. Cagney, in his budding film career, was limited to small roles in several of his movie appearances. He didn't advance into larger ones because studios felt his quick-talking delivery was unsuitable for the emerging audio technology. For the first couple of years of sound dialogue, the standard practice was to have the actors speak in slow, deliberate voices, with pauses between the actors' lines so viewers could digest what was being said. With Cagney, his lightning-fast delivery was completely opposite. Arliss, who was given the power to select the actor for that brief, albeit crucial scene, chose Cagney among those young actors whom Warner Brothers offered. Arliss loved Cagney's "natural behavior and innate cockiness," he said, just the perfect characteristics for the role.

As reviewer Mick LaSalle noted, the passing of the torch between generations of actors was occurring during that one brief scene. "In The Millionaire, the past and future meet at a moment of ideal stasis, just before the past has started to end and the future about to start. Two actors, two styles, and two eras are there before our eyes- in a union both incongruous and yet surprisingly harmonious."

George Arliss's name was synonymous with "Great Acting" back in the early talking film era and he more or less lives up to the reputation herein, playing a Henry Ford-style auto magnate in failing health whose doctor insists that he retire and take it easy lest his heart give out. So he reluctantly but obediently moves to sunny California with his wife and daughter where he settles into a life of vice-free boredom. One day a cocky insurance salesman (played by the motor-mouthed James Cagney in an early supporting role) suggests that he would be happier if he bought a small business as a hobby just to keep the old juices flowing. Arliss finds the advice intriguing and responds to a newspaper ad offering half interest in a filling station. Posing as an ordinary investor under an assumed name, he purchases the half interest without hesitation from a suspicious seller (Noah Beery) and discovers his partner is a handsome young would-be architect (David Manners in one of his better efforts) biding his time until he can get his real career off the ground. Soon it becomes clear to both that Beery has swindled them, knowing that a new superhighway nearby would soon open and attract all vehicles away from the spot where their filling station was located. Using the business acumen he has accrued through the years, Arliss hatches a plan to purchase property across the street from the swindler's new filling station and drive him out of business with better service, better advertising and a more attractive establishment. Meanwhile, Arliss's daughter drives in for a fill-up and is recognized by Manners as the attractive girl he met briefly at a college dance a few years earlier. He falls head over heels in love with her and decides to marry her, little knowing she is the daughter of his partner. As this romantic subplot plays out, Arliss's health improves by degrees under the healthy stimulus of running a small business, even as he declines to swallow the medicines prescribed by his doctor. It's fun to watch Arliss play this lovable character who learns how to heal himself. It's a wise film indeed, demonstrating that care of the spirit is just as important as medicinal regimens. The whole thing moves along at a brisk pace. Cagney's brief bit is memorable in a "star is born" manner—the elegant old pro Arliss generously allowing the brash young actor to steal the scene. Arliss did a similar favor for young Bette Davis in THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD a year later.

Coerced into early retirement, a bored former automobile tycoon decides buy a petrol station and operate it, but keeping the business a secret from his concerned family and competing with a rival petrol station proprietor prove challenging in this amiable comedy starring George Arliss. The film is best known nowadays for James Cagney's brief turn as a fast-talking, pipe-smoking insurance salesman who first makes Arliss consider buying a side business after noting that retirees tend to pass away earlier than those who remain employed to the end. Cagney absolutely nails the role, but the film belongs to Arliss all the way who proves himself a surprisingly sharp and shrewd businessman (he puts up a sign saying "don't ruin your car with cheap gas" as a response to his competitor lowering his prices). The film takes an incredibly long time to warm up though and it is only really in the second half of the movie that the comedy side of the film takes off. The laughs are, however, very good with lots of confused identity business as Arliss has to pretend to be penniless for his gas station partner and also has to pretend to not be working for the benefit of his family. 'The Millionaire' is a tad problematic if viewed as a message film (it advocates blatantly ignoring medical advice), but the writers are smart enough to keep any such themes in the background though and the comedy at the forefront. Noah Beery (brother of Wallace) also turns in a fine performance as the petrol competitor who learns an unexpected lesson or two from the highly experienced Arliss.