Mild-mannered bank cashier Charles Victor learns he has an enlarged heart and might last another couple of years. Between his nagging wife and the proposed stress of a promotion, he daydreams about a cruise. So he turns down the promotion and stuffs the bank's money in a suitcase. The manager catches him, leaving Victor just enough time to scarper to Eastbourne -- with a minute or two of location shooting -- where he holes up in a quiet private hotel. Things get noisy when ex-con Cyril Chamberlain shows up, blackmails ex-girlfriend Zena Marshall, courts well-to-do spinster Peggy Mount and recognizes Victor from the newspapers.
'Solid' is a good word to describe this obviously cheap second feature. The copy I saw had three minutes trimmed from its length, but it doesn't seem to miss them. The effect is that of a decent TV production from a semi-anthology show of the 1960s, like THE FUGITIVE, where David Jansen might get caught up in some one else's story for a week. Few of the actors are attractive, save the juvenile couple of Michael Craig and Miss Marshall; none of the characters are terribly interesting either, save Chamberlain as Miss Marshall's ex-boyfriend, looking to shake every farthing out of anyone who has any, and Phyllis Morris, whose nagging and browbeating seem like most of the reason for husband Victor to get out.
In some ways, that's an odd message to send: the only way to be interesting is to be a nasty piece of work. Yet the dull people are the ones who are happy, in their mild-mannered way. That seems to be the normative subtext of this movie. It's certainly not that money will make you happy.
