Wednesday, March 21, 2007

If I Had A Million $$$$$$

With tonight’s 6/49 lottery riding at around $20 million – though latest reports suggest that those sort of figures may be a marketing ploy – we started talking at the office about the first thing we would do if we won. A few of the suggestions were frankly too scatological to be included on a family (?) blog.

It did bring to mind one of our favorite old movies – if I recall it was the first movie Laurent ever copied on our old Beta machine – If I Had A Million. A rich old man (Richard Bennett) lies dying and rather than give the money to his greedy relatives he takes names from a phone book. This leads to episodes starring many of Paramounts biggest stars and finest directors of the period: W.C. Fields, Alison Skipworth, Gary Cooper, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, May Robson, Ernst Lubitsch, James Cruze and Norman Tuarog. The Fields-Skipworth (as retired vaudevillians Rollo Peters and Emily LaRue) is the funniest sketch and Robson (as an old lady confined to a nursing home) appears in the most touching but it is the briefest segment that I have always enjoyed the most. Devised by and starring the great Charles Laughton and directed by Lubitsch , it comes closest to one of my dearest fantasies.



If tonight turns out to be my night you may see that scene recreated tomorrow in the hallowed halls of Transport Canada.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now, willym ... how far do you take it? to our cheif? to hers? the director? the director general? the minister? the prime minister? or to our grateful (?) employers, and broadcast it when you get the cheque?

heehee ...

goodun.

David Smith