If I Had a Million **** (1932, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, W C Fields, George Raft, Jack Oakie) – Classic Movie Review 7,390

The 1932 comedy film If I Had a Million has a simple, well executed idea: a dying eccentric millionaire decides to give a million dollars to eight people picked at random from the phone book to test their responses. W C Fields and Charles Laughton shine.

Paramount Pictures’ 1932 black and white comedy film If I Had a Million has a simple idea, but it is very well executed.

Richard Bennett plays dying eccentric millionaire John Glidden, who decides to eschew the relatives he dislikes and instead give a million dollars to eight people picked at random from the phone book to test their responses.

The 15 Thirties great stars have a field day, though perhaps the two most engaging turns come from W C Fields as Rollo La Rue and Charles Laughton as Phineas V Lambert.

The comic stories are still funny, and the serious tales are surprisingly cynical and tough-toned, in this extremely satisfying movie.

Paramount really pushes the boat out. As well as the 15 stars, there are an astonishing 19 writers and eight directors. And yet it runs only 88 minutes. The screenwriters take their cue from the novel Windfall by Robert D Andrews.

The stars are W C Fields, Charles Laughton, May Robson, Richard Bennett, Alison Skipworth, Gary Cooper, Wynne Gibson, George Raft, Jack Oakie, Frances Dee, Charles Ruggles, Mary Boland, Roscoe Karns, Gene Raymond, and Lucien Littlefield.

Also in the cast are Irving Bacon, Hooper Atchley, Bob Burns, Berton Churchill, Bess Flowers, Robert Homans, Joyce Compton, Samuel S Hinds, Fred Kelsey, Lew Kelly, Tom Kennedy, Marc Lawrence, Grant Mitchell, Gail Patrick, Jack Pennick, Dewey Robinson, Fred Santley, Tom Ricketts, Willard Robertson, Syd Saylor, Rolfe Sedan, Edwin Stanley, Kent Taylor, Ernest Truex, and Morgan Wallace.

If I Had a Million is directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z McLeod, James Cruze, William A Seiter, H Bruce Humberstone and Lothar Mendes.

It is written by Claude Binyon, Whitney Bolton, Malcolm Stuart Boylan, John Bright, Sidney Buchman, Lester Cole, Isabel Dawn, Boyce DeGaw, Walter DeLeon, Oliver H P Garrett, Harvey Gates, Grover Jones, Ernst Lubitsch, Lawton Mackall, Joseph L Mankiewicz, William Slavens McNutt, Seton I Miller, Robert Sparks and Tiffany Thayer.

Double or Nothing (1937) has a similar idea.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,390

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