Bill Lawrence wins a jackpot worth $24,000 on a radio quiz program. His happiness, and that of his family, is short-lived after he discovers he'll be compelled to sell the prizes in order to... Read allBill Lawrence wins a jackpot worth $24,000 on a radio quiz program. His happiness, and that of his family, is short-lived after he discovers he'll be compelled to sell the prizes in order to pay an amount of $7,000 income tax on them.Bill Lawrence wins a jackpot worth $24,000 on a radio quiz program. His happiness, and that of his family, is short-lived after he discovers he'll be compelled to sell the prizes in order to pay an amount of $7,000 income tax on them.
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Clever script from the Ephrons (Henry & Phoebe), along with a number of nice touches from ace comedy director Walter Lang. Note how he has a card-playing guest humorously peek at the cards while others are distracted by the radio show-- that had to be an inspiration of the moment. Stewart, of course, brings his usual brand of amiable befuddlement to the comedy mix, and who better to play his department store boss than that 50's curmudgeon of big business, baldy Fred Clark, (I hope there's a special place in Hollywood heaven for unsung performers like him).
I remember the mystery-guest quiz shows that the movie portrays. They were popular and fascinating for an audience trying to unravel the riddle of the celebrity guest (eg. Jack Benny as the "Walking Man"). I don't know, but I'll bet that those shows started paying the taxes on prizes after this movie was released. This is a good example of the kind of family comedy that soon migrated to 50's sit-com (Ozzie & Harriet; Leave it to Beaver). Probably it would not have been produced 5 years later, quiz-show premise or not. Nonetheless, there's enough human interest and clever comedy set-ups to overcome the period limitations and keep you entertained.
That all changes when he gets a call from the Name the Mystery Husband quiz show and with a little help from James Gleason he gets the right answer. He wins $24,000.00+ in prizes, but no one tells him of the complications that go with it.
Barbara Hale steps nicely into Donna Reed's shoes and Natalie Wood and Tommy Rettig are the two children. Best in the supporting cast are Lyle Talbot, the department store's other vice president and one slobbering bootlicker and Alan Mowbray as an officious interior decorator.
Mowbray is playing a part and playing it well that another 20th Century Fox star, Clifton Webb would have eaten for breakfast. I wonder if the part in fact was offered to Webb. Maybe he turned it down because at that point he was a big name box office draw and the part of the obviously gay interior decorator might have been too close to home for those times.
The Jackpot is an enjoyable family comedy. Director Walter Lang got good performances out of his very talented cast.
Stewart doesn't raise this film to A status, but having him in it certainly brings it up a notch. He plays husband and father Bill Lawrence - maybe George Bailey 20 years hence "It's A Wonderful Life" had it not been for Clarence - who's bored with the routine and, in middle age, realizing that the house, the wife, the kids, the job, - this is it. As he puts it, he's not going to the North Pole. Then he gets a call from the Federal Broadcasting System to make sure he's home that evening to get a call from a quiz show. If he can answer the question correctly, he'll get $24,000 in prizes.
Bill answers correctly, and then the trouble begins. Where to put the fully-dressed quarter ton of meat, the 7,000 soups, the three years of frozen foods, the old furniture since the house is being made over, the pony, etc. And who's going to pay the taxes on all that stuff. These aren't the only headaches. Bill's wife (Barbara Hale) is jealous of the dishy dame (Patricia Medina) hired to paint Bill's portrait, so his marriage is going down the tubes.
This is a cute movie that does have some amusing bits in it, plus good backup from James Gleason and Fred Clark. The best for me was Bill deciding they need to sell stuff to pay taxes, and trying to do it on the sly in the department store where he works, waylaying customers like a guy who drags you into a back alley. Stewart is wonderful, as if he could ever be anything but, and Barbara Hale is lovely. But give me a break. This could have been a sit-com episode. I can't imagine what gun Darryl Zanuck held to Jimmy's head to get him to do this movie. Zanuck must have had dirt on him that no one else knew.
Jimmy Stewart plays the man making around 7 grand a year (talk about inflation!) and hopes to win the.radio prize of 24 grand. Oddly his friends think he would never have to work a day in his life, though I'm not sure how far that 24 grand would have gone even in 1950. After all he's making just over 7 grand a year and has a few hundred in the bank so that award money would finance his and his family's life or less than 4 years!
Even worse, he doesn't even win the money but an absurd list of prizes. That's where the movie began to lose me. The entire radio sequence was ridiculously overdone. It's true old prize shows such as Queen for a Day did have a plethora of prizes, but they were relevant to the winner's needs, not just absurd awards like a pony or a maid or portrait artist, etc.
Despite its flaws this is one of the most interestingly plotted movies I know of. It goes all over the place and often om unexpected place.
The extended ratio sequence certainly diminishes the movie for me. But otherwise it was rather entertaining with a doze of originality.
What can one say about James Stewart, in my view the greatest actor in the history of the Hollywood cinema. I love Brando, but I can't imagine even Brando successfully handling the range of parts that Stewart played.
Barbara Hale, later of Perry Mason TV series, was a strong presence in the movie, though a very young Natalie Wood seemed unrecognizable.as the daughter. One would never have guessed she would shine as a beauty queen in adult roles. Tommy Rettig, who played the son, later got the part of the boy in the Lassie TV series.
Fred Clark, who later was the second best Harry. Morton in the Burns and Allen series seems to have been ubiquitous in films of this era, and always successfully so.
I wish I had paid more attention to the music score; but, oddly, I don't recall a single underscore cue in the entire film. I'll have to see the movie again to check the accuracy of that statement.
In sum, even apart from the interesting plotting of the story, and despite the longueurs of the radio sequence, any Jimmy Stewart is foolproof.
Did you know
- TriviaThe house interior used as Jimmy Stewart's character's residence was previously used as the interior of the home of the main characters in the Mr. Belvedere film Sitting Pretty (1948). The secretarial desk by the staircase is used by characters in both films.
- GoofsThe shadows of trees and other objects on the street in front of the Lawrence home face the same direction in both the opening-shot of the movie, which is set in the morning, and in the scene late that afternoon when Bill comes home from work.
- Quotes
Mr. Ferguson: They might attach your salary.
William J. 'Bill' Lawrence: Then I'll quit my job and live on soup.
Mr. Ferguson: They might attach this house.
William J. 'Bill' Lawrence: Then I'll burn down the house!
- SoundtracksAin't We Got Fun
(uncredited)
Music by Richard A. Whiting
Lyrics by Ray Egan and Gus Kahn
Sung by an off-screen chorus during the opening credits
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- La suerte se divierte
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- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
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- 1.37 : 1