Please don't spend money on this.

How sad is this?

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

I'm sure not too many of the kids or even the parents that took their kids to see The Million Dollar Duck back in 1971 would realize that the British film Mister Drake's Duck was the inspiration for this Disney film. Nevertheless the British film of 1951 and the Disney film of 1971 are remarkably similar. Only the British had Mister Drake's Duck lay uranium eggs whereas this Disney duck lays gold ones after a bit radiation exposure and a concoction that Sandy Duncan makes and gets fed to the duck. The British film was not one of their better comedies, but Mister Drake's Duck had some good moments and nice satire on the government of Great Britain in those post war Labour Days. This one just has a lot of good players looking very silly.Two of them are stars Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan as a research scientist and his wife who are barely scraping by financially. The duck in question is part of a research project conducted by head scientist Jack Kruschen. When the duck flunks the intelligence test Kruschen gives him to Jones and his young son Lee Harcourt Montgomery becomes attached to it also. Of course when it starts laying those golden yolks inside the egg at that point Jones and car pooling neighbor Tony Roberts think they've hit the leprechaun's pot. But then in 1971 America as now ownership of gold is most restrictive. Not to mention that ducks that can just squat and those orbs can ruin the monetary structure of the world. That sends neighbor Joe Flynn into action who works for the Treasury Department and Flynn's supervisor James Gregory.The Million Dollar Duck has far more silliness than genuine humor in it. Far from gold, it's not even good sounding brass.

An absolutely excellent movie.I cannot, for anything, understand any criticism of this fine film, such as Mr. Siskel, walking out on it, as he did this for only three movies, out of all the thousands he watched for reviewing.Any movie, I say, any movie, with Joe Flynn, is great, and you add in Edward Arnold, and the solid Disney characters similar to those of the Dexter Riley era, and you have a smash hit.The plot, what is wrong with that? The last I knew, Disney was known for fantasy, and family tales, with a happy ending.Dean Jones, as usual, is superb, Sandy Duncan, great, as his loving and supportive, sweet wife. And Tony Roberts, great- punchy, yet a friend to the professor (Jones).Concerning the portrayal of sweet, middle-class American family life, what is wrong with that? Nothing. Just because it does not look like life of today, is no reason to knock it, plus it provides deep joy for those who grew up in that era (1971), especially those who did so, in the Southland, where this gem was filmed.Happy ending, with good lessons learned, a fine film.

This movie, also known by the alternative title "The $1,000,000 Duck", isn't clearly one of Disney's most solid films. It's not a great movie, but has its fun and originality.The movie stars Dean Jones and Joe Flynn, both from "The Love Bug". The movie happens to be about an animal, but here's where its biggest originality is: it's not about a cat or a dog or other familiar animals in movies, but a duck! The duck is a cute and likable chap, but very strange. After wandering into a radiation lab, the duck becomes irradiated and many unusual things happen to it, such as to lay golden eggs. Before that, it was already a poor dumb duck.Dean Jones portrays Professor Albert Dooley, the guy who takes the duck home to offer his son. His son becomes attached to the duck. But because of the whole golden eggs story, Albert Dooley becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming rich thanks to that, proving how people can get so easily greedy for money.Then again, it's not a super movie, but has its moments, such as Dooley's giant car polluting the air like that and doing those engine noises when it stops (very much like Uncle Buck's car) and some moments with Joe Flynn. I also liked that nice and beautiful yellow sports car.Almost at the end of the movie, there is a sequence that is all about a chase. The whole sequence is really nuts yet hilarious! While watching it, I couldn't help myself thinking «Damn, what a chase!».

Suburban comedy-fantasy from Disney, a spin on "The Goose That Layed The Golden Egg", itself drops a big gold-plated bomb: modern day family, 'kooky' for easy laughs, discover their pet duck lays solid gold eggs (the Mrs. actually takes one of these eggs to the bank, hoping to deposit it into her account!). Cartoonish, out-of-touch tale eventually turns into a queasy dissection of greed and how money rips families apart (fathers and sons, in particular). Full of long-in-the-tooth hippies and square adults, the picture is aimed at kids but probably won't keep many in their seats. Although officially titled "The Million Dollar Duck", the film was advertised in print and on television as "1,000,000 Duck". It's a wasted effort either way, despite promising chemistry between stars Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan. *1/2 from ****