Hot Millions is a 1968 British caper story feature film made by MGM. It was directed by Eric Till and produced by Mildred Freed Alberg, from a collaborative screenplay by Ira Wallach and star Peter Ustinov. The music score was composed by Laurie Johnson, featuring the single "This Time" by Scottish singer Lulu. The cinematographer was Kenneth Higgins.
Plot
Con artist Marcus Pendleton has just been released from prison for embezzlement. He has emerged into a world increasingly reliant on
computers. He convinces computer programmer Caesar Smith to follow his lifelong dream of hunting moths in the Amazon Rainforest. Assuming Caesar's identity (how he does this is not explained in the film), he gains employment at the London offices of an American conglomerate called Tacanco. While Pendleton fools executive vice president Carlton Klemper, another Tacanco executive, vice president Willard Gnatpole, is suspicious. As Caesar Smith, Pendleton uses the company's computer systems to send
insurance claim cheques to himself under various aliases and addresses all over Europe. For his Paris company, the cheques go to 'Claude Debussy' and his cheques to Italy go to 'Gioachino Rossini', both famous (but conveniently dead) composers. He meets and marries Patty, an inept secretary and frustrated
Flute. As Caesar, he now has the problem of hiding his hot money. Beating discovery of his fraud by Gnatpole, he and Patty flee to Brazil when Klemper and Gnatpole fly to Rio after Patty invited them. In a twist, it seems that a now-heavily pregnant Patty found the loose change from his foreign visits money and invested it in companies Pendleton mumbled about in his sleep, thus making a profit for Tacanco. Patty offers to sell the stock back at a reduced price, repaying the money stolen by her husband. Wanting to have the baby back in England, she has invited Klemper and Gnatpole to 'visit'. She persuades Klemper to rehire Pendleton as Taranco's treasurer: the reformed embezzler could easily spot fraud, and would not steal from his own company. Though unhappy about his new legal status, Pendleton agrees. The film ends with Pendleton conducting an orchestra (one of his dreams) as Gnatpole and Klemper sit in the audience. Patty, still expecting, is the solo flautist. As she finishes her solo, she realizes the baby is on the way, to which a concerned Pendleton whispers, "What, now?"
Cast
Locations
Filmed at MGM-British Studios,
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, and on location.
When Maggie Smith's character takes Bob Newhart's character shopping, she is seen buying an outfit at the Apple Boutique on Baker Street, London, which was owned by the Beatles. The boutique only operated for a few months before closing; Hot Millions provides one of the few filmed glimpses of its interior.
The car driven by Newhart’s character is a Jensen Interceptor.
Reception
The film was loss-making but was moderately budgeted.
Film critic of the time, Pauline Kael, described the movie as a "whimsical film about timid people" which offered movie goers a cozy, uplifted feeling.
Awards
In 1969 the film was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen — losing out to
Mel Brooks for
The Producers — and for a Writers Guild of America award for Best Written American Comedy, losing to
Neil Simon for
The Odd Couple.
External links
