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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