The Big Money ** (1958, Ian Carmichael, Belinda Lee, Kathleen Harrison, Robert Helpmann, James Hayter, George Coulouris, Jill Ireland, Renée Houston, Leslie Phillips) – Classic Movie Review 12,341

The 1958 British film The Big Money is a moderate comedy thriller that stars Ian Carmichael in one of his silly ass performances as Willy Frith, the fumbling son of an eccentric family of criminals trying to disperse counterfeit banknotes. 

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1958 British film The Big Money is an only moderate Rank Organisation comedy thriller that perhaps aspired to the heights of Ealing’s 1955 success The Ladykillers or their The Lavender Hill Mob, but does not make the grade.

Ian Carmichael stars in one of his silly ass performances as Willy Frith, the fumbling son of an eccentric family of criminals trying to disperse counterfeit banknotes.

The Big Money is at best merely run-of-the-mill Fifties fun, just patchily amusing, with an experienced cast trying to make up for a script by John Baines that does not always hit the target.

Robert Helpmann plays creepy as a crook called The Reverend, the British comedy stalwarts (among them Kathleen Harrison as Mrs Frith, James Hayter as Mr Frith and Leslie Phillips as Receptionist) cheer it up nicely, and only an uncomfortable Belinda Lee is out of place as Carmichael’s girlfriend Gloria.

It was filmed in 1956 but not released until 1958, and thereby hangs a tale.

Carmichael said the movie was ‘a sad disappointment, and a frustrating and nail-biting experience’. He felt the premise was ‘a good one and the early sequences gave it a promising start’ but that ‘very soon it descended into the broadest comedy clichés.’ He worked on an amended screenplay with script doctor Bryan Forbes, but the executive producer found out and took Forbes off the film, which was shot as the original script.

Next thing, the film’s release was cancelled in July 1956 because Rank Organisation head John Davis did not believe it was sufficiently funny.  Carmichael said: ‘If the powers that be think the film is unfunny I’m relieved they’re not going to show it.’ Helpmann said: ‘I applaud the courage of Mr Davis’ decision but I can take no responsibility for the unfunniness of the film.’

But in 1958 producer Hugh Stewart was working on a Norman Wisdom film with scenes at Ascot. Its director John Paddy Carstairs remembered there were Ascot sequences in The Big Money and suggested Stewart look at it. Stewart decided the film could be released with some additional editing and music, leading to its 10 June 1958 release on Rank’s Odeon circuit.

However, Carmichael said Stewart’s ‘confidence was misplaced: ‘The Big Money should have remained incarcerated or, better still, destroyed.’ It led to the termination of Rank’s three-picture contract with Carmichael by mutual agreement. He recalled: ‘I didn’t like factory farming, which was what I assessed the film production at Pinewood to be at the time, and they, no doubt, didn’t like my argumentative interference in a side of the production which they probably considered to be none of my affair. The fact that all along I had been right about The Big Money could also only have rankled.’

Producer Joseph Janni took his name off the credits.

Diana Dors was cast as Gloria but turned down the role, which Belinda Lee took over in one of her several comedies for Rank.

The ten week shoot at Pinewood studios started in April 1956.

The cast are Ian Carmichael as Willie Frith, Belinda Lee as Gloria, Kathleen Harrison as Mrs Frith, Robert Helpmann as The Reverend James Hayter as Mr Frith, George Coulouris as The Colonel, Renée Houston as Bobbie, Michael Brennan as Bluey, Jill Ireland as Doreen Frith, Leslie Phillips as Receptionist, Harold Berens as Bookmaker, Hugh Morton as Valet, Ferdy Mayne as Furrier, Digby Wolfe as Harry Mason, Michael Balfour as Wilberforce, and Desmond Jeans.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,341

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