Who's Minding the Mint?

"Who's Minding the Mint?" is a hysterical comedy-"heist" movie in the classic tradition, as U.S. Mint worker Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton) accidentally destroys $50,000, and endeavours to sneak back into the place and reprint the money so the books will balance. Things start to snowball when he gets his old friend "Pop" (a delightful Walter Brennan) to help out, and more and more individuals get involved in the complicated scheme. Naturally, they want to get something out of this, so the amount of bills to be printed escalates in number.... Harry also gets the co-worker (Dorothy Provine) who is sweet on him to do the job of cutting the bills.

Sadly neglected at the time of its release, "Who's Minding the Mint?" is quite an engaging comedy over 50 years later, benefitting a lot from the efforts of a large cast: Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Bob Denver, Jamie Farr, David J. Stewart, Jackie Joseph, Mickey Deems, etc. Hutton is wonderful as he mostly does "straight" acting, reacting with increasing weariness to the avarice and bungling of his compatriots. But the ones who tend to steal the show are Jack Gilford as the veteran safe cracker who happens to be hard-of-hearing, and a hilarious Victor Buono as the pompous ex-skipper who's drafted to build the participants a boat. (They need a boat, of course, to navigate the sewers.) There are some truly priceless farcical moments, all brought breathlessly to life by these fine performers and the director, Howard Morris, himself a comic character actor whom you may recognize from his work with Mel Brooks.

It's gratifying to see that the movie does have its admirers, which has presented it from being totally forgotten. It's extremely well paced, pushes some buttons in an endearing manner (Pop actually brings along his female pet beagle, who's about to give birth), and leads to a classic manic finale.

We root for our unlikely heroes all the way, even though we expect, and chortle at, those moments when it seems that everything is going to go up in smoke.

Paul Winfield has an uncredited bit near the end as a garbage man.

Eight out of 10.

A staple of the 4:30 Movie I haven't seen this film for many years until I came across a long out of print Columbia Video copy in my local video store. And what a find! Here is a sweet fast paced comedy that really works. US Mint worker Jim Hutton accidently destroys a fortune and must replace it in a short time or else! With the help of some friends Hutton must break into the Mint and print the missing millions. This film owes a lot to ITS A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD but has enough clever plot twists and antics to call its own. Definetly worth a look at and hopefully Columbia will rerelease it on VHS or even put it on DVD.

It's a smaller-scale "Mad Mad Mad etc World" with some crafty veteran gagsters (Gilford, Berle, Buono, Brennan, Bishop et al) doing their shtick. Small improbabilities build and build until you end up with a string of boats with wildly-costumed characters sailing in an improbable location from an impossible caper. Total on-screen madness, yet it made sense at every small plot step along the way. Tightly-constructed and very much a late-60s comedy. It's one of those favorites you're slightly ashamed of.

Most of us who love serious films have a Dark Side, in which we shamefully adore some really non-serious work of cinema. I shamefully admit it; I love Who's Minding The Mint. At every turn in the preposterous plot, a new (old) face appears and each of these characters really runs with his tiny part. The plot deals with breaking into the U.S. Mint and printing up sheets of money, but plot is secondary to the moment-by-moment antics of this assembled comedic multitude.

Watching the ensemble work of veteran comics (such as Milton Berle, Jack Gilford, Joey Bishop, and a young Jamie Farr) I was reminded of the much-more-honored MadMadMad World. Besides ya gotta love Bob Denver (Gilligan) playing a sex symbol.

Like other reviewers here, I have always wondered why this wonderful film has been forgotten. Not only is it a great parody of the 'anatomy of a crime' films that were popular in the 1960's, it showcases some marvelous comedy talent. One little quibble: the title is a misnomer; the conspirators do NOT break into the US Mint. They break into the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing (the facility in Washington, DC which prints our paper currency).