Miss Tatlock's Millions

In 1948, I saw this movie with friends, not expecting much. I went in not knowing much about the actors and came out howling with glee at the sparkling writing, crisp direction, romantic story and most of all the peerless company of scene-stealing character actors. Now, I was very young at the time so I probably couldn't have told you then exactly why I would never forget it until I became a film buff years later.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent video available. I recently bought one at Amazon and it is of the same poor, frustrating quality as the one that occasionally pops up on late night TV.

This is the gem that got away and deserves to be recognized. Anyone know someone with clout at AMC??

This movie is a dandy. Itis extremely underrated,and even more difficult to find. I happen to have a poor copy on VHS. Watch it if you have the opportunity.A classic screwball comedy, with a great cast,Barry Fitzgerald is top notch as usual, in a supporting role. This is a movie that deserves to be restored, shown on Turner Classic Movies, and given the respect it should have been given years ago.This is a perfect example of "they don't make em like that anymore". I first viewed this movie when I was about ten years old. Naturally I was curious to see if time and maturity had changed my mind. It hadn't. John Lund and Wanda Hendrix never achieved stardom, this movie would have advanced that cause.Made in the late forties it embodies the optimism of that era. This movie has a sweetness that is sorely lacking in today's film. Films of similar likeness would include Bringing Up Baby, and maybe the Topper series of movies.It is the only movie veteran character actor Richard Haydn directed. I wish he would have directed more.

John Lund always gave a good performance, but for some reason he was always relegated to background acting: that is he was present, frequently in the lead male part, but somehow his role did not stand out enough to be recognized. His first big film was TO EACH HIS OWN where he played two roles - a World War I American ace who meets the heroine, Olivia De Haviland, while on a bond drive in upstate New York, has a passionate, brief affair with her, gets killed, and reappears some twenty years later as his own illegitimate son, raised as an adopted child by De Haviland's neighbors. It should have been the role(s) to establish him - but it didn't, because the bulk of TO EACH HIS OWN was De Haviland's part as the mother who loses her son. In fact, the son is played by a child actor, for part of the film - and is more memorable to the audience than Lund.

His banner year would be 1948. He appeared in two films that year that showed his acting strengths: A FOREIGN AFFAIR with Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur (directed by Billy Wilder), and this film, MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS. A FOREIGN AFFAIR is a wonderful comedy of post-war Berlin by Wilder, with Lund as an army black marketeer who is trying to protect himself and his girlfriend (Marlene) from a Congressional junket investigating black marketeers (including Jean). He does very nicely in the comic bits, misleading and confusing Arthur, and slowly becoming aware that he may be giving misplaced protection to a former Nazi supporter (Dietrich). But the real stars are Arthur (doing crazy undercover investigation) and Dietrich (given several good Frederick Hollander numbers to sing. And Wilder's screenplay with Charles Brackett, as well as his direction are overwhelming on Lund too.

But Lund does dominate (wisely) MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS, as the Hollywood stuntman turned fake heir. Richard Haydn (in one of his rare directing jobs) allowed Lund to take off on the eccentric "Schuyler" Tatlock, who loves to set fires, and wants to make his sister (Wanda Hendrix) happy. Schuyler escapes from his "keeper" Barry Fitzgerald, and apparently perished in a fire. But this was before the death of his grandparents, and he is one of the heirs to their fortune, much to the disgust of his aunt and two uncles (Ilka Chase, Monty Wooley, and Dan Tobin). Ilka would also like to keep Wanda's share of the fortune close to home by marrying her to her son Robert Stack.

There is a fly in the ointment. Fitzgerald has been keeping mum about the demise of Schuyler because it allowed him to live on his salary in the South Sea island they lived on. Now is his day of reckoning, and to prevent it he discovers that Lund (a Hollywood stuntman) looks like Schuyler. So he makes a business proposition: play the role of Schuyler for a week or so, until the will is read, and then "return" with Fitzgerald to the South Seas. Lund agrees to this - and then learns it's easier to assume a role sometimes than to drop it.

For one thing, he (unlike the real Schuyler) understands human nature. He is supposed to be a half-wit, so everyone (but Wanda) treats him with a bare contempt. And he resents it, and manages (while maintaining his act) to humiliate them. For a second thing, he finds he's physically and emotionally attracted to Wanda - and he detests Stack. Finally, the family lawyer (Haydn, in a nice cameo), reveals that the bulk of the fortune was given to Schuyler, rather than to the others. This certainly means that Fitzgerald cannot drag such a wealthy figure back to their former island home.

An accidental fall, causing Lund to momentarily sound normal, also adds to the problems. The new "normal" Schulyer Tatlock is able to communicate his feelings to Hendrix - although his ultimate feelings have to be hidden, as an incestuous relationship is impossible.

This comedy finally enabled Lund to show he was not just a dependable male lead. He was shown to be capable of insane comic antics as Schuyler. The result was a pleasure up to the satisfactory conclusion of the comedy. It was John Lund's finest hour on screen.

I saw this movie on its release when I was about 12 years old. It was a wild riot, and a big neighborhood hit. Kids would be singing "I don't want to set the world on fire" in school. That was it! If it reappeared on TV in the 60's, I wasn't watching TV then, so I only had the late 40s memory of it. Lately, I started wondering how the movie would affect me today, but it had disappeared. I assumed that the movie was a victim of political correctness; it had probably been pulled from circulation because the lead character imitated a developmentally disordered/cognitive impaired psychotic person.

However, after some internet searching, I got a good enough copy to view.

It is a mild enough comedy. As a child, I was convulsed at the weird behavior of Skylar. This must have been why I remembered it as being so funny. Today, it seems that John Lund did a Jerry Lewis type bit before Jerry Lewis became famous doing it. So, now, the crazy guy didn't seem all that wildly crazy after all those years of watching Jerry Lewis doing the same shtick Still. There are funny lines, good performances, and a tight script..and...wasn't Wanda Hendrix super cute? That must have also affected me when I was 12. Oh, yeah!

**MILD SPOILERS** I personally know of no one, other than myself, who has heard of this movie, let alone watched it. Miss Tatlock's millions in no way deserves to be relegated to obscurity. It's genuinely funny, sidesplittingly so at several junctures. John Lund (who plays an obscure actor) is hired to play the part of a long "lost" relative who has just inherited the "millions" in the title. Actually, this relative happens to be more than a little daft--a pyromaniac (a comic pyromaniac, of course, who goes about singing, "I Just Want To Set the World On Fire") who has spent 20 years or so in an insane asylum. The mayhem that follows is quite fun--and needless to say, there is the usual love interest, the confession that he is not what he seems, the rejection, the reconciliation, and (no surprise) the sudden appearance of the real heir. Obviously, it isn't the plot elements that make this worth watching--it's the hilarity gleaned from the trip. It certainly isn't a masterpiece, but it IS worth retrieving from the abyss of forgotten movies. 8/10