That was an excellent one.

Memorable, crazy movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The most dominating character role I've seen irascible grandfatherly Charles Coburn play. This is definitely his movie, whatever the official credits suggest. He also dominated, again playing a tycoon, in "The Girl Who Took the West", where again he was concerned how his fortune would fare after he was gone. Coburn, as Samuel Fulton/alias John Smith, having no close kin, wants to bequeath his fortune, especially in gold and oil companies, to the descendants of the one woman he loved, back when he was poor and struggling. He wants to express his gratitude to her for refusing him, which stimulated him to travel around the US, looking for investment opportunities. But first, he wants to test if this family can handle his fortune responsibly. He fakes an advertisement from them for a roomer, then shows up on their doorstep with the paper in hand, badgering them into accepting him as the roomer.Mrs. Blaisdell(Lyn Bari) is characterized as the worst offender in spending the test money lavishly on a mansion with fancy furnishings, expensive car and clothes, etc.. She even demands they trade in their personable Airedale for a pair of French poodles. In large part, she wants these things in order to be accepted as an equal by the town upper crust, so that her daughter, Millie, is better qualified to marry the son of a rich family. Meanwhile, son Charles tries to multiply their fortune by gambling at cards, but instead loses all his money, necessitating Coburn to use his expertise at card gambling to win it back for him anonymously. Meanwhile Mr. Blaisdell gambles a good share of the money on a stock, which then collapses. Daughter Millie is the only one of the adults who is conservative in her demands with the money. Her mother wants her to marry a rich man she doesn't love. Now that they are rich, Millie's boyfriend Dan(Rock Hudson), a mere soda jerk, feels out of place as her boyfriend, so breaks off their engagement. But later, when the family is flat broke, he resumes his interest in Millie, while her rich fiancé suddenly loses interest in her.We don't learn whether Coburn decided to will the rest of his fortune to the family. He took a special interest in Millie. If I were him, I would have all securities, companies and cash put in a trust fund, from which they can draw so much per year. with Millie getting the most. This comedic drama is played against a background of 1920s culture, including raccoon coats and a number of songs. In fulfilling his role as a snooper and aid to the Blaisdells, Coburn is arrested several times for frequenting a speak-easy or a gambling den, and reprimanded for allegedly necking in a movie theater with Millie. He is talked into working in the Blaisdell's pharmacy as a soda jerk, after an inauspicious training period. At night, he has to sleep with the family dog.The aspect that deserves the most criticism is the excessively feel good ending, which has the family returning to their old house and old business(which they had sold),as if they had never received the money and hadn't gone bankrupt. Should Coburn have revealed himself before leaving , or disappeared incognito.Lyn Bari, usually typecast as "the other woman" or loser, has a different role here, but still clearly comes across in a negative light who, along with the others, loses their fortune because of their greed. Also, she champions "the other man" to marry her daughter.

It is hard to imagine German exile Douglas Sirk (Hans Detlef Sierck) directing anything less likely than this, for it is even more extraordinarily pure Americana than the other Rock Hudson films he directed later. The film is based on a story written by Eleanor H. Porter, author of 'Polyanna'. The first thing to say about this film is that the cinematographer Clifford Stine ruined it from the start. Most of the interior scenes are so brightly lit by 'brutes' that they seem to be taking place in the Sahara Desert at noon. Any chance that a nuance might survive such savage and searing light was nil. The amount of sweat sponged off the actors' faces by the makeup lady between takes must have been enough to fill a swimming pool. The film is notable for an early appearance in a tiny cameo role by James Dean as a teenager sitting at the soda counter in a small town drug store. Even in his few fleeting moments, Dean manages to be electric, which is astonishing and most impressive. Although this film purports to be a cozy tale of small town life, it is based upon a rather rotten premise. It concerns a rich elderly curmudgeon, brilliantly played by Charles Coburn, who decides to stay as an incognito boarder in the house of a family to which he might or might not leave a fortune, depending on what he decides that he thinks of them. They are the daughter and grandchildren of the girl he wanted to marry but who dumped him, so that he lived his life as an embittered bachelor. The film was immensely popular when it was released. The story touches the central nerve of the USA, the land where Money is worshipped on bended knee by 300 million devotees, all of whom dream every night of the supposed delights of untold riches, especially unearned riches which come from an unexpected source (hence the popularity of Las Vegas and Atlantic City). Money is the only measure of value accepted by the majority of Americans. If you have a rare book or a beautiful painting any American visitor admiring it will give you what is meant to be the highest form of praise: 'That must be worth a lot!' It is only the monetary value that matters, the contents of the book or the beauty of the painting being incidental and essentially meaningless. Hence a fairy tale of a rich old man who might leave you a fortune is the ultimate dream, the True American Dream! The situation is made worse by the fact that so many people in America are desperately poor, far more now than in 1952 of course, for at that time there was national prosperity. Therefore they all still dream of Charles Coburn, even if they have never heard of him. The cute little girl in the film is played by Gigi Perreau, aged ten at the time. It is difficult for people today to realize how popular she was as a child actress. She first appeared on screen at the age of two, and she was only three when she played the illegitimate daughter of a Belgian woman who had been raped by a German soldier in THE MASTER RACE (1944, see my review). All during the 1950s she was a favourite of all the little boys throughout America, and made their tiny hearts throb in incomprehensible ways. She was not that cute, not that pretty, not that charming, but nevertheless she was a tearaway success. Her fame was eclipsed starting in 1959 with the appearance of the young Hayley Mills in the film TIGER BAY (1959). Hayley was a law unto herself: irresistible in every conceivable way, she could be sweeter than Margaret O'Brien (and that's saying something!), cheekier and cuter than Shirley Temple had ever been, more poignant that Natalie Wood, more everything than everybody, in fact. And so Gigi Perreau was suddenly forgotten, poor thing. But she had had a good run for her money and was four years older, and besides was getting long in the tooth at the great age of 18. She had had a run of 16 years and now it was somebody else's turn. So from these comments you may gather that in retrospect I do not believe she added much to the film, though at the time everybody was entranced by her. That is what happens when you are up against Hayley Mills in hindsight! Rock Hudson plays a young 'soda jerk' romantic lead, but doesn't have many interesting lines, and it is an unrewarding part, so he just looks dull and square-jawed and slightly ill at ease. Piper Laurie as the ingénue whom Hudson wants to marry was thought in those days by everybody to be lively, pert, and quite a cutie. In retrospect, she seems dreadfully dull too. (And just to make things worse, her makeup and costumes are bad.) In fact, everybody in the film is rather dull other than Charles Coburn and James Dean. And the film is a dreadful disappointment. But the crucial fact to remember is that it was not a dreadful disappointment back then. It served its audience of Middle America perfectly according to the undemanding standards of 1952. And for those prepared to watch a bit of nostalgia wearing their sunglasses (because of the harsh lighting), this rather tepid film might warm a cockle or two.

This wonderful film has often been described as a wonderful piece of Americana and so it is.It is beautifully realized thanks to a wonderful cast, terrific pacing and a story line that we can repeat over and over: money isn't everything.Charles Coburn gives another wonderful performance. This versatile actor, who moved from drama to comedy with ease, is fantastic as the elderly gentleman who visits the family of the woman who turned him down years before when he proposed to her. While the woman herself is now deceased, Coburn finds her family in the ideal American town of the 1920s.Lynn Bari is wonderful as the status seeking mother married to a soda store owner-Larry Gates. Then there is Gigi Perreau who is as precocious as ever.A young and beautiful Piper Laurie appears as their elder daughter who becomes engaged to Rock Hudson, a soda jerk at Gates' store.When Coburn goes to live with family, posing as a border, all hell breaks loose when he gives them anonymously $100,000. The money changes all of them drastically.There are wonderfully comic turns everywhere and there is a short but memorable Charleston done by Laurie and Hudson. Even, Coburn figures in the dancing.You will be upset when the movie ends because Coburn, on the verge of being found out, announces to the family that he may never see them again as he leaves. Nevertheless, this is a feel good movie; it conveys the American ideal and values so well and with great comedy along the way.

Great fun!I just caught this on AMC and loved it immediately. A millionaire (Charles Coburn) gives $100,000 to the family of the woman who rejected him when he was young. Set in the 1920's when steak was 56 cents a pound, that's a lot of cash!The money immediately goes to the family's head and Coburn has to step in anonymously to set things right.A wonderful period piece, and Coburn doing the Charleston is an incredible sight!