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Hadn't heard of this Stewart title before catching it during a recent run on the Fox movie channel. It's well worth a watch. It does a nice job of capturing the post WWII atmosphere in America as families turned their attention away from the war and the pre-war depression and forward to new economic prosperity and growth. It is in this atmosphere that an average family living a simple life in small town Indiana answers a radio contest question and wins a $24,000 prize, which today probably amounts to 10 times as much. The resulting humorous complications that arise both at home and at work for Stewart and his family after he becomes a prize winner are hilarious.

From the movie description, you would think this is the kind of plot line that the writers would give cursory treatment, but I was surprised at the quality of the writing. I should have known better since James Stewart is not likely to agree to take a lead role in a poorly written work. Stewart has a solid surrounding cast who also all deliver ably - Barbara Hale, Fred Clark, James Gleason, Bob Gist and others, including young Natalie Wood. This is a nice romp and worth viewing.

Amusing little programmer that may be dated, but moves along nicely. Department store exec Jimmy Stewart has a suburban home, two cute kids, and a dutiful wife (Barbara Hale). He's a little bored but otherwise okay. That is, until he wins a yard full of dubious prizes (fruit trees, 1000 cans of soup, et. al.) from a radio show. That's sort of okay too, until he finds out he's got to pay $7000 in taxes on loot they really can't use. Now the happy home turns upside down and into a sales bazaar as Stewart tries to raise the tax money and get his life back to normal. However, the complications pile up almost as fast and furiously as the chuckles.

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.

The Jackpot features James Stewart in another incarnation of his George Bailey, Mr. Average Man persona. Like Bailey, Jimmy Stewart is the average man with a wife and two kids. Only his Mr. Potter is his boss Fred Clark at the department store where he's a Vice President. But like Bailey he's feeling stuck in a rut in his small town.

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.

An employee at a store answers a phone call which results in him winning prizes on a radio quiz program worth $24,000. However, when he realises he has to pay tax of $7,500 on the prizes, he tries to sell items to raise the money and his family's life is thrown into turmoil.

Based on a play, in turn based on a true story, this is an entertaining comedy which was well received on release but is now surprisingly little known. Stars James Stewart, excellent as usual, and Barbara Hale with a good cast in support.

Beneath an innocuous story about a quiz show prize, there is a comic attack on a consumer society and the quest for more wealth.

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.