When Bernard Fox wins a tidy sum on the football pools, his family and friends -- parents Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison, sisters Lana Morris and Kate O'Meara, neighbors Charles Victor and Thora Hird -- are ready to celebrate. Nothing, however, is ever simple when it comes to money.
It's a class-conscious and misogynistic comedy as the women wrangle over money and snipe at each other, particularly Margaret St. Barbe West as Miss Harrison's parvenu and money-hungry sister, and Valerie White as the sleazy mother of Fox' partner in the ticket. Warner and Harrison are fine in their sweet spots as a married couple; they had co-starred in four or five movies in the "Hugget Family" series. Clearly this movie was cast to take advantage of their star pairing.
I found it more harrowing than funny, with an assortment of unlikable women slanging each other. It shows its origins on the stage very clearly, with almost all of it taking place on one set, with a few scenes shot outdoors near the end.
