Publisher: CinemaSerf December 23, 2024
I think this is one of those comedies that might have worked better on a stage. As it is, it rather labours the farfetchedness of the joke. That joke centres around a scavenging family gathered at the stately pile of the deceased "Tatlock" for the reading of his will. Sure, his family are all there with their tongues hanging out, but his long term retainer, the semi-permanently drunk "Noonan" (Barry Fitzgerald) knows of a long lost nephew who might as well turn up too. He's dead! What does that matter? The family won't know that, especially if "Schuyler" (John Lund) turns up not the full shilling. Well, boy are they in for a surprise as the old man left it all to his (now equally demised) wife who left it all to her favourite nephew. Yep, you've guessed. How long can the pair keep the façade going, though, before it all cracks? Their charade isn't helped by the stooge slowly falling for sister "Nan" (Wanda Hendrix) nor by the suspicious aunt "Cassie" (Ilka Chase) who has designs for her own son (Robert Stack) on that front. With the ebullient uncle "Miles" (Monty Woolley) in the family line up, you know it's going to be a lively gathering with plenty of duplicitous machinations going on to ensnare the $6 millions the tax man doesn't take. The premiss is quite fun, and Chase, Woolley and Fitzgerald help to keep it moving along entertainingly enough - it's just the largely charm-free combination of Lund and Hendrix that lets it down a bit. Even given the daftness of his role, Lund doesn't really relax into the part perhaps because the others are more natural and the light-weight Hendrix is all too easily subsumed into a cast of far superior character actors. It's quickly paced and still quite fun to watch, though.