Hot Millions *** (1968, Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden) – Classic Movie Review 8861

Director Eric Till’s 1968 Hot Millions is a cute, likeable and appealing comedy with a double score for Peter Ustinov – a delightful performance as a confidence trickster, paroled London fraudster Marcus Pendleton, and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Story and Screenplay for his share in the witty, amusing  script, written with Ira Wallach.

Maggie Smith shows her equally deft comedy touch in her first full star part as his inept secretary and frustrated flautist, Patty Terwilliger Smith.

The plot has Ustinov replacing an insurance company’s computer programmer and using a massive computer to try to defraud his boss Carlton J Klemper (Karl Malden)’s large American corporation. The special cast includes Bob Newhart as the firm’s efficiency expert Willard C Gnatpole, Robert Morley as a computer wiz called Caesar Smith, and Cesar Romero as a South American customs inspector.

Also in the cast are Melinda May, Ann Lancaster, Frank Tragear, Elizabeth Counsell, Margaret Courtenay, Patsy Crowther, Lynda Barron, Raymond Huntley, William Mervyn, Kynaston Reeves, Bob Todd, Anthony Sharp, Paul Dawkins and Julie May.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8861

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