Man with a Million

Original title: The Million Pound Note

1954
Approved
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

4.3K

YOUR RATING

Comedy Romance

As part of a bet, two aristocrats offer a penniless American a loan, without telling him that the amount is £1,000,000 in the form of a single banknote.As part of a bet, two aristocrats offer a penniless American a loan, without telling him that the amount is £1,000,000 in the form of a single banknote.As part of a bet, two aristocrats offer a penniless American a loan, without telling him that the amount is £1,000,000 in the form of a single banknote.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

4.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The prop £1,000,000 note was larger in both size (about 7 x 9 inches) and value than any real note produced by the Bank of England up to that time, even notes for internal use. However, the bank still imposed strict regulations, which were violated when posters advertising the movie showed a reproduction of the note. This had to be covered over before the posters were allowed to be used.

Goofs
The flag outside the U.S. consulate features 48 stars, although an American flag in 1903 would have had only 45 stars.

Quotes
[Henry has just eaten a slap-up meal in a restaurant and the proprietor is hassling him to pay the bill. He opens the envelope from the Montpelier brothers and sees the £1 million note]
Henry Adams: [hesitantly, in shock] I'm awfully sorry. I don't have anything smaller.

Connections
Featured in Jonathan Ross' Must-Watch Films: Cult Classic Films (2023)

Soundtracks
Tempus adest floridum
(uncredited)
Traditional
Whistled by Gregory Peck

User reviews37

Review

Featured review

6/10

Noteworthy?

As others have noted this is a one-joke comedy with the joke scarcely strong enough to carry the 90 mins. The movie is at its worst w hen it strains too hard to be funny with much pulling of flabbergasted faces and one ludicrous scene when the `note', obviously on a string, blows away and Peck dementedly chases it through the busy streets of Victorian London.

Gregory as the American Everyman excused from the English Class System looks and sounds fine if a little smug in a few scenes where possession of the eponymous note gives him the upper hand.

The big cast of British character actors including always enjoyable Joyce Grenfell as a dotty duchess in a slight variation on her usual jolly-hockey sticks character makes this fable on capitalism just about worth a look. Special mention also to A.E. Mathews striking just the right note as an antediluvian peer.

I found curious the billing of Ronald Squire and Wilfred Hyde-White, playing the brothers behind the scheme. They have exactly equal time at the beginning and end of the story but Squire is listed second with Hyde-White fifteenth! I'm sure Wilfred of My Fair Lady fame is the one remembered today.

Please note alternative title `Man with a Million'