Make Mine a Million

Arthur Askey stars as an inept make-up man who gets involved with a sort of photo-bombing of products on a British PBS-like TV network, which does not have advertisers. After the TV station fires him, he becomes national celebrity after a series of photo-bombs advertise a laundry soap called Bonko and the product's sales skyrocket. He becomes so famous, the network gives him his own show!

Askey may be a little broad in his humor for all tastes, but this is a good role for him. Others in the cast include Sidney James as the Bonko salesman, Dermot Walsh as an ad-man, Olga Lindo as the landlady, Sally Barnes as a girl friday, Bernard Cribbins as the camera guy, Bruce Seton as the police chief and some "guest stars" like Evelyn Laye, Dennis Lotis, Tommy Trinder, and a sex bomb named Sabrina.

Arthur Askey's comedy is very much in the Music Hall style, and while he was popular in his day, he never achieved the major movie success of George Formby or Norman Wisdom.

While I really liked Hay's movies, Aksey's left me flat. So, I was a bit hesitant when I found "Make Mine a Million" on YouTube today. Fortunately, my assumption was wrong...and this Askey film is delightful and clever.

Arthur is a lowly (and barely competent) make-up man for British TV. However, his life is about to change tremendously. This is because he develops a friendship with a man who makes Bonko laundry detergent....and he manages to insert an ad for Bonko into a broadcast! Then, he manages to do it again when a horse race is being televised. Immediately, the public go crazy for the soap...so much so that a cake mix company comes to Arthur to ask him to do some gorilla-style advertising for them as well! What's next? See the film.

The plot is very clever. Think about it...a guy managing to create ways for products to be inserted into live broadcasts in order to save costs on advertising! The police are naturally NOT happy about it. Can Arthur manage to do this without going to jail? And, what happens when Arthur becomes a sensation and the public want more of him?!

Overall, a lovely film and it makes me think perhaps I was too hasty in disliking Askey.

Historically noteworthy as the final production of John Baxter - it's vaguely satirical storyline at the expense of TV commercials carrying echoes of the social concern of his thirties films - and preserving for posterity various luminaries of the era (some of them - like racing tipster Ras Prince Monolulu - making very fleeting gag appearances as themselves).

Not for the first time Lance Comfort's direction and Arthur Grant's photography go well beyond the call of duty in making it all remarkably enjoyable to experience.

I loved Arthur Askey as a stage performer, particularly in pantomime, where he wisecracked off script throughout the show and as such often dominated the entire performance! He had such a great rapport with audiences who loved him, so it was no surprise that he was always a top of the bill entertainer in the late 30's, 40's and the 50's. However, by the time this film was made, 1959, Arthur was showing his age. The film itself doesn't really do justice to his immense comedy talents. In fact, it's the ubiquitous Sid James, a 'man for all seasons' who holds the film together as well as providing a perfect comedy foil to Askey. Sid James plays another loveable ' wrinkled' rascal, which sees him conniving and scheming to secure advertising time for his new unknown washing powder, 'Bonko' on national TV - code for the BBC - with the active assistance of Arthur Askey, playing a BBC make -up man. The TV adverts sends the sales of ' Bonko' soaring, but sadly for Arthur, he gets the push from his job for breaking the strict rules about advertising on national TV. Nevertheless, our irrepressible Arthur bounces back from adversity and finally he's offered his own TV show. The storyline is rather silly but the film does give the audience a chance to spot a galaxy of stage and screen stars playing cameo roles. Humour, like fashion after a few years becomes dated, and many of the comedy scenes left me underwhelmed. The film has a curiosity value as to what entertained audiences in the late 50's.

'Make Mine a Million' is a riotously rumbustious, classic music Hall-style, frightfully frilly farce with plentiful slapstick silliness, and crispy-corny, quick-fire japes! This sun-bright, and summer breezy bit of frothy, eminently titter-worthy nonsense is about the playful, but increasingly desperate travails of an earnest, and somewhat penurious Soap Power salesman (Sidney James), and his amusingly spiv-ish, comedically fraught escapades as he frantically, and somewhat inventively attempts to turn his unknown 'Bonko' brand of 'miracle' soap powder into a national top seller! These delightfully comedic, full-throttle misadventures are brought to vividly frothing life with two larger than life performances by luminous national treasures Arthur Askey, and Carry On Cackling legend Sid James, with a nice turn from the beloved TV star Bernard Cribbins. What keeps 'Make Mine a Million' from being a wash-out is its infectiously roustabout, rib-tickling charm, sparklingly sprightly sight gags, and bonkers 'Bonko' buffoonery! There are also brief, but no less glistering cameo's from bubbly Babs Windsor, cuddly Kenneth Connor, blissfully Buxom starlet Sabrina, and mirth-master Tommy Trinder! Any giddy-headed, smile-seeking fan of vintage British comedy should give 'Make Mine a Million' a spin, as this whiter-than-white, wholesomely family-friendly, wonderfully winsome comedy is clean as a whistle, mayte, and features yet another smoothly sonorous score from mood maestro Stanley Black.