Hot Millions is an 1968 crime comedy 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, Maggie Smith, Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley, Cesar Romero. The music score was composed by Laurie Johnson, featuring the single "This Time" from Scottish singer Lulu. The cinematographer was Kenneth Higgins.
Released from prison, Marcus Pendleton, an embezzler whose crime was discovered by a computer, decides to become a computer expert. He then befriends Caesar Smith, one of Britain's foremost computer authorities, and persuades him to leave the country. Equipped with Smith's identity, Pendleton is hired by Ta-Can-Co., an industrial conglomerate headed by Carlton J. Klemper; assisted by a charwoman, he programs the corporation's computer to pay large monthly checks to three nonexistent companies.
Pendleton then makes secret trips to Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt to collect and cash the checks. Meanwhile, he has married his secretary, Patty Terwilliger.
When Pendleton learns that he is going to become a father, he leaves Ta-Can-Co. and flees with Patty to Rio de Janeiro. But Klemper and his computer overseer, Willard C. Gnatpole, discover the fraud and follow the swindlers to Rio.
Fortunately for Pendleton, Patty has invested some of the money and made a fortune in the stock market.
After paying back the stolen money, the couple still have her funds, and Pendleton is free to fulfill his ambition of becoming an orchestra conductor--in whose orchestra Patty plays the flute.
This delightful comedy comes from the pen of Ustinov himself, with writing partner Ira Wallach, and is a joy from start to finish. For this is a movie in which there's both a convincing plot and winning characters, neither of which feel forced. Resisting the temptation to write himself a showy part, Ustinov makes Pendleton/Smith the straight man, with all the best lines going to Smith. And Smith certainly does shine as a comedienne, instantly endearing as the unco-ordinated, seemingly dim Patty, who is unable to keep a job and dreams of becoming a flautist. Newhart also impresses as the slimy exec trying to climb the greasy pole and eliminate the competition.
And, unlike many crime capers, there's an ending that's both plausable and genuinely surprising. And it gets there with the minimum of fuss, never dragging, except for an inexplicable cameo featuring Cesar Romero as a customs officer offended at Malden and Newhart's taste in beverages.
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