A dying tycoon gives million-dollar windfalls to eight people picked from the city directory.
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Title: If I Had a Million (1932)
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Edit
Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Gary Cooper | ... | Steve Gallagher | |
| Charles Laughton | ... | Phineas V. Lambert | |
| George Raft | ... | Eddie Jackson | |
| Jack Oakie | ... | Private Mulligan | |
| Richard Bennett | ... | John Glidden | |
| Charles Ruggles | ... | Henry Peabody (as Charlie Ruggles) | |
| Alison Skipworth | ... | Emily La Rue | |
| W.C. Fields | ... | Rollo La Rue | |
| Mary Boland | ... | Mrs. Peabody | |
| Roscoe Karns | ... | Private O'Brien | |
| May Robson | ... | Mrs. Mary Walker | |
Edit
Plot Summary
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Storyline
Tycoon John Glidden, dying though still vigorous, is so dissatisfied with his relatives and associates that, rather than will his money to any of them, he decides to give it away in million-dollar amounts to strangers picked from the city directory. He picks a meek china salesman; a prostitute; a forger; two ex-vaudevilleans who hate road hogs; a condemned man; a mild-mannered clerk; a boisterous marine; and an oppressed inmate of an old ladies' home. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords:
screwball comedy | guardhouse | anthology film | omnibus film | portmanteau film |Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
22 February 1933 (Sweden) See more »Also Known As:
The Forger See more »Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
| (USA) (DVD release)Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)Color:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
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See more »
(1866) (uncredited)
Music by J.A. Butterfield
Played as dance music at the Idylwood home
See more »
Did You Know?
Goofs
Discovering he's about to die, millionaire Glidden decides to leave his money to names he's randomly selected from the phone book. But when first name he chooses turns out to be John D. Rockefeller, he flips a few pages further into directory and selects someone named Peabody - a name that would actually have appeared in the book before Rockefeller. See more »Quotes
John Glidden: Relatives! Hah! Did you see 'em, roostin' down there like a lot of vultures waitin' for an old steer to die?See more »
Alternate Versions
In England, the raspberry sound that Phineas V. Lambert makes was changed to a whistle. See more »Soundtracks
When You and I Were Young, Maggie(1866) (uncredited)
Music by J.A. Butterfield
Played as dance music at the Idylwood home
See more »
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IF I HAD A MILLION is one of those rare films worth having on tape. I was thrilled to find this back in the 1980's, and it's a prized item of my collection.
The plot is simple, but crazy. A dying billionaire, sick of his greedy relatives, decides to randomly give million dollar checks to strangers picked via the phone book. Since this is in the middle of the depression, the results are eye-popping!
My two favorite segments involve George Raft as a petty thief unable to cash the check because the law is after him. His downward spiral is rather chilling.
The other favorite segment, and the one this 1932 film is most famous for is the one where two eccentric ex-vaudevillians (W.C Fields and Alison Skipworth) decide to run selfish road-hogs off the road. Road rage has never been funnier than in this segment. Fields' angry comments to fellow drivers is a scream.
The rest of the segments run from sappy (a man going to the electric chair gets the check) to sweetly funny (The almost wordless segment with Charles Laughton, May Robson as a fiesty rest-home victim, and Gary Cooper as an out of control Marine) This film is worth a million!