The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo ** (1935, Ronald Colman, Joan Bennett, Colin Clive, Nigel Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 6865

An attractively smooth performance by the star Ronald Colman, the views of Monte Carlo and gaming details keep director Stephen Roberts’s lightweight 1935 piece intriguing and entertaining.

Colman plays a Russian emigré prince who goes to Monte to win for his Russian friends in post-World War One Paris. He takes the jackpot but the casino owners plot to make him play again and honour the tradition of returning to the gambling tables.

The film is based on a play by Ilya Surguchev and Frederick Albert Swan and is slightly static, talky and too often set-bound, while the thinnish romantic-comedy script has faded but the movie is still bright and frothy enough.

The Man Who Broke the Bank also features Joan Bennett as the beautiful lady of mystery Helen Berkeley, Colin Clive as Bertrand Berkeley, Nigel Bruce as Ivan, Montagu Love, Frank Reicher, Lionel Pape, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Charles Fallon, Leonid Snegoff, Sam Ash, Charles Coleman, Lynn Bari, John Carradine, André Cheron, E E Clive and Dennis O’Keefe.

Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd, the copyright holders of the song from which the title is taken tried to sue Twentieth Century Fox Corp in the Supreme Court of Ontario, Canada, but after two appeals were denied copyright protection, confirming that a name or short phrase is unprotected in law. The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo is a popular 19th century British music hall song written in 1891-92 by theatrical agent Fred Gilbert and popularised by comedian Charles Coborn.

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935) theatrical poster.

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo is directed by Stephen Roberts, runs 71 minutes, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Howard Ellis Smith and Nunnally Johnson, based on a play by Ilya Surguchev [Ilia Surgutchoff] and Frederick Albert Swan [Swann], is shot in black and white by Ernest Palmer, is produced by Daryll F Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson (associate producer), is scored by Cyril J Mockridge and Oscar Bradley (musical director), with Art Direction by William S Darling, with music by Bert Kalmar and lyrics by Harry Ruby.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6865

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