In the Pocket

The actors appear to be having fun in this British comedy and this viewer did as well.

Ian Carmichael is the black sheep of a family of thieves (father James Hayter, mother Kathleen Harrison, sister Jill Ireland). One day he heists a briefcase from a dodgy clergyman (Robert Helpmann) which is full of pound notes. Unfortunately they all have the same serial number! Carmichael is seduced by "the big money" and starts passing the counterfits, one bill at a time. Much of his need for money is to impress a pretty barmaid (Belinda Lee) at his local pub. She dreams of the millionaire who will come and give her the good life. This keeps the plot going as Carmichael has to find new ways to pass more and more counterfits, one at a time, and impressing his girl at a fancy nightclub and the Ascot races. Along the way two con-men (George Coulouris and Michael Brennan) try to con Carmichael. Unfortunately Carmichael can't pass the counterfits fast enough to keep up with Lee's aspirations, we're now up to a mink coat, so she helps herself to some of the counterfits. I'm afraid to say that giving the fur shop four hundred notes with the same serial number does attract the attention of the police. Obviously the clergyman and his henchman have also been seeking whoever has stolen his briefcase.

Almost without exception the actors seem to be having fun. Hayter and Harrison relish their parts as straight laced thieves (although the young Ireland has nothing to do but look lovely). Helpmann, more noted in ballet than films, is an incisive villain with a dash of the devil. Coulouris and Brennan, trying to get Carmichael's attention to their scam while he would rather moon over Lee, are delightful. Lee herself, amply displaying why she was a pin-up of the 50's, handles the transition from good girl, to temporarily seduced by wealth back to good girl with charm. Carmichael easily handles many physical bits of comedy with his usual success. Although it did take me a while to accept his performance because I'm so used to seeing him as an upper class twit rather than lower class thief.

The film is well paced by the director (John Paddy Carstairs) and technical credits, including color photography, are fine.

I'm surprised that I had not seen this film before and suspect that ownership or other commercial factors may have prevented it from being included in the movie packages being sold to television in North America. That would be the only reason why this undiscovered film is not more fully appreciated. Certainly the actors and film makers have given us every reason to appreciate this film.

I've just attended 'Ian Carmichael in Conversation' at the National Film Theatre in London (8 Dec 02). He was very wary of discussing this film, describing it as 'a mistake'. He said that he and Bryan Forbes had attempted to rewrite the script, but this was discarded. According to Mr Carmichael, the film was put away as unreleasable for five years, when another director thought that he could salvage footage of a race meeting at Ascot for insertion into a Norman Wisdom picture. He told Rank that with a bit of work, he could make it releasable - and there it is.

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.

The Ealing comedies from England traveled well and built an enduring love overseas for British humor on screen, as did many an Ian Carmichael comedy into the '60s. But this big-deal production from Pinewood Studios laid an egg: a parochial sort of humor that missed the target. It's ironic that a film with this title (and script) aimed for the big money, with wide-screen filming in Technicolor! Ian's stammer and slapstick fall flat, the story is weak, and other than staring at beautiful leading lady Belinda Lee the movie is hard to watch. I did appreciate briefly seeing the great Jill Ireland in an early role.

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