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Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Millionaire for Christy (1951) [NR] ***


A Millionaire for Christy is an example of why the screwball comedy didn’t work well after the 1930s. A Millionaire for Christy tries to adapt a regular screwball comedy script for the filmmaking techniques of the 1950s, which means shooting on location. This gives the scenes a sense of reality, of seriousness, which doesn’t belong in a screwball comedy. These scenes give the characters a lot of weight – their problems become very real, which works against the whole point of a screwball comedy.




Eleanor Parker plays Christabel ‘Christy’ Sloane, secretary at a San Francisco legal firm. She’s assigned to take some papers to Peter Ulysses Lockwood (Fred MacMurray) in Los Angeles to sign, so he may receive a $2 million inheritance. Christy’s office co-worker convinces her that this is her chance to marry money, so when Christy goes to Peter’s apartment, she throws herself at him. What we soon learn however is that he’s a radio philosopher / prune juice salesman with a collection of ardent female admirers. Also, he’s getting married to June Chandler (Kay Buckley) that same day, and his best man, Dr. Roland Cook (Richard Carlson), is also in love with June.

By the second act, everyone is convinced that Christy is mentally ill, Peter is being unfaithful to June, and there is no $2 million inheritance. June’s father orders Peter out of the house, the wedding is postponed and Roland convinces Peter to drive Christy south to his psychiatric clinic in La Jolla. Peter and Christy become lost in the coast fog, drive off the highway into the Pacific Ocean and end up spending the night in a caboose with half a dozen Hispanic railroad workers. A romantic moonlight kissing scene supposedly cements the relationship between Christy and Peter. It is possible 1950s audiences believed it, but it is not convincing seventy years later.

Peter and Christy finally reach Roland’s La Jolla psychiatric clinic, behind a tow truck. After Christy has Roland call her legal office in San Francisco, he becomes convinced of her sanity and Peter’s inheritance, and the two of them devise a plan to separate Peter and June. This scene between Richard Carlson (Roland) and Eleanor Parker (Christy) is one of the best in the film. There’s good chemistry between Carlson and Parker and Eleanor Parker shows us that her character has real depth and that she’s not just a shallow, hysterical fortune-hunter. Had the script been rewritten to develop the relationship between the two, this could have been a powerful pivotal scene, but it didn’t happen.

The third act includes a drunken scene in a La Jolla hotel where Peter, still not believing he’s inherited $2 million, fills out pledge cards to charities including the Salvation Army, a local orphanage and Roland’s clinic, giving away his fortune. Only later does he discover that he really was a millionaire and has just given it all away.

The film ends with Peter and Christy boarding a train out of town to escape a variety of people chasing them… newsmen, police and recipients of Peter’s charitable contributions, while Roland and June are left with each other. For me it didn’t make any sense. Why is Christy still interested in Peter now that he’s no longer a millionaire? Why does Roland still have a thing for June after getting to know Christy? It just doesn’t work. There are also several scenes that don’t belong in a screwball comedy and are rather disturbing, including Peter abducting Christy in broad daylight, Peter assaulting photographers, and Roland expressing concern for the mentally ill while he is drunk at a party.

The bottom line is that this film is a serious waste of acting talent, especially Eleanor Parker.

Labels: comedy, Eleanor Parker, Fifties, romance

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